Resident Evil: The Seraphs
by Xenogears
Summary: Eight months after 'Silver Blood. What happens when Leon, Claire, Chris, Sherry and Ryan make way for Alaska to get away from Umbrella? Will they evade Umbrella? Or will they have to face another nightmare? (FINAL CHAPTER ADDED)
1. Resident Evil: The Seraphs, How it began...

Resident Evil

The Seraphs

By: Xenogears

# Prologue

In no way do I own the characters of Capcom's legacy, Resident Evil. They are used for non-profit purposes, only for entertainment.

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_ _

_ _

_There was once a city__by the name of Bhrams, in the state of Oregon. It was a normal, everyday type of city. Not too large, not too small. But all of this changed when the international drug corporation Umbrella came to town. They secretly set up their own lab in the Cascade Mountains, hoping that no one would find them._

_ _

_They were wrong._

_ _

_Two of Umbrella's most wanted, Chris and Claire Redfield, managed to hire a hacker, and get into Umbrella's systems, finding out the location of the labs._

_ _

_Around the same time, one of the eight survivors from Raccoon City, Leon S. Kennedy, was approached with a proposal: join us or Sherry dies. (Sherry was also one of the survivors from Raccoon.) Leon was forced to accept the offer, and was shipped off to Bhrams to recover information about a new experimental virus. There he met his Umbrella contact, Vincent Johnson, and once again met up with Claire Redfield (who had helped him escape Raccoon)._

_ _

_By this time, a citizen of the city, Ryan Davidson, was also being hunted by Umbrella. He managed to find the whereabouts of the Redfields, and joined them in their mission to destroy Umbrella._

_ _

_Over the course of a few days, Claire and Leon ended up in a relationship, which made it harder for Leon to complete his mission. When the time finally came for Leon to reveal his true reasons for being there, he ended up betraying Umbrella so his friends could escape. Just before they were about to leave, they were attacked by the ultimate form of the new virus, named Silver Blood. Leon came just in time to save them, but he refused to leave the city. Claire was dragged off by her brother, and they left the labs. In a moment of realization, Leon decided that it was time to escape before he was caught up in the self-destruction sequence. Using a cargo helicopter, he escaped the labs, and picked up his friends just as the city went up in a giant fireball. _

_ _

_That was in March, 2000._

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_ _

_ _

_Now it is November 29, 2000, and they have a new Umbrella threat to deal with..._

_ _

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Claire was awakened by the sounds of Chris and Ryan arguing.

"Would you keep your eyes on the road?!" Chris bellowed.

"Hey!" Ryan retorted. "Look, I only have a driver's permit, I've never driven for this long before, I've never driven a mini-van, and I've never driven anything in the snow before. Considering all this, I think that I'm doing pretty damn good!"

"But would it kill you to actually look at the road?!"  
  


"We're in Alaskan winter weather!" Ryan shot back. "We're lucky that we can even see through this snow storm!"

Tuning her mind out from the conversation, Claire decided to think to herself.

'After all that has happened, I'm surprised that we're still alive...' Claire thought. 'We wouldn't have survived this long without each other. There's Chris, my brother, the heavy weapons expert with a slightly short temper¾something that all Redfields seam to inherit¾and quick to jump to conclusions. But he will protect others with his life if he has to. Sherry¾now thirteen¾quiet, and calm, she would be perfect for something like taking down zombies, except that Raccoon left her with a little mental trauma (like all of us seemed to get, but Sherry exhibited it the most) and she's too young. Nonetheless, she's like a little sister to me, as she's also grown onto Ryan in that same way. 'Ryan, the typical fifteen-year-old boy.' He has seemingly unbounded energy, and the rough-and-heavy attitude to back it up. He's a good marksman, and tall for his age. However, after traveling with us for awhile, he began to have nightmares. 'Something that all of us went though after our first encounter with Umbrella.' The difference is that Ryan seems to have _very_ vivid and _very_ real nightmares, why, Claire didn't know. 'I swear that if it weren't for someone closer to his age like Sherry, he would lose it.'

Claire looked over at Leon who was sleeping next to her, as she admired how handsome he looked as he was sleeping. She brushed a strand of his reddish brown hair from his eyes and smiled.

'Then there's Leon,' She thought. 'Without his help, I wouldn't be here, a few times to be exact. Of course, I did the same, but not as much as he did. Ever since we departed on not so great terms after Raccoon, I felt some sort of attraction to him. Though I couldn't explain it then, I can now. Quite simply, any moron could see that we've fallen for each other. Even after he was forced to betray us in Bhrams, I still haven't lost any feelings or trust in him. In fact, it seems that no one has. Though it seemed that we fell in love quickly, to us it took forever. We're the most important thing in our lives now. We actually thought that we would've liked to start a relationship when this is all over, but with how strong our feelings are, that would be impossible, so we just gave in to one of life's greatest pleasures, and pains, and let it go from there. So far so good I can say...'

The van then took another sharp turn, and Chris and Ryan started to argue again.

"There you go again!" Chris yelled.

"What?! Maybe if you weren't distracting me, we would've stayed on the road!"

By now, everyone was given a rude awakening, and Claire was quite fed up with it.

"Okay, Chris," Claire said, trying to restrain her voice from shouting. "You stop talking to him."

"Thank you, Cl¾" Ryan started to say.

"And you, Ryan, keep your eyes on the freakin' road!"

Chris chuckled.

"Chris!" Claire said through clenched teeth.

"All right! Jeez..."

"Man...being bossed around by your younger sister? You're a pitiful excuse for¾"

Ryan didn't get to finish, because Claire kicked his seat, which satisfied Chris, and shut Ryan up. 

"Ugghh...What time is it?" Leon asked, half-awake.

"Good morning. It's four-thirty AM."

"Okay...Good morning..." Leon said as he went back to sleep with everyone else. 

"For anyone still awake, we should be at Carlton by seven. Have a nice ride...God knows I won't..." Ryan announced.

'Oh well...Might as well try to go back to sleep...' Claire thought as she closed her eyes, and rested her head on Leon's shoulder. 

Author's Note: IIIIIIMMMMMMMMM BAAAAAAAAAACCCCKKKKK!!!!

Thanks to my proofreader, F. Buckley, my copyeditor, Mayumi_H, and my beta readers Catalina, Red Kat 9, and Jack the Ripper (formerly known as The Black Dragon.

_Ja ne!_

Draft: 12/29/00

Final: 1/6/01 


	2. Resident Evil: The Seraphs, Destination ...

Resident Evil

The Seraphs

By: Xenogears

Chapter one

In no way do I own the characters of Capcom's legacy, Resident Evil. They are used for non-profit purposes, only for entertainment.

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Claire awoke again. Stifling a yawn, she looked out the window into the dull colors of the dawning sky. It was that time when it's dark, yet bright outside. The clock on the dashboard read 5:40 AM. Everyone else but her and Ryan were sleeping.

"Morning..." Ryan said groggily.

"How long have you been driving?"

"Uh...I think...seven hours..."

"Okay, pull over, and let me take the driver's seat. You get some sleep."

"We'll be there in half an hour. Once we find a hotel, I'll get some sleep. Until then, I'm driving."

"Whatever you want."

Ryan's looks hadn't changed much, except that his wound had almost fully healed, leaving a deep, dark scar. He always covered it with a blue bandanna. He had grown about an inch, and his pony tail was about an inch shorter than Claire's. 

Claire now wore a red denim jacket over her "Let Me Live" vest, her pony tail was now braided and about halfway down her back, and she wore loose-fitting blue jeans.

"So tell me again why we came all the way to Alaska just to visit this town of Carlton?" Ryan asked.

"We need to get as far away from Umbrella as possible. Alaska just happens to be the biggest, most wide open, and remote state in this country," Claire answered.

Ryan didn't reply.

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_Half an hour later..._

The van passed a sign reading, 'Welcome to Carlton.' Soon after that, a hotel appeared at the roadside. Everyone decided to stake it out at that location for the time being. After parking the van, and taking their winter coats (Ryan for some reason refused to wear his, relying on his thin, gray hooded sweat shirt, which he refused to zip up), they went into the hotel lobby.

The room was deserted. The lights were dimmed, and flickered once in a while, but they stayed on nonetheless. On the counter there was a small non-functioning TV, and various magazines. The room itself was very clean, but there was a smell of lemon scent fighting a losing battle over alcohol and tobacco smoke. 

"This place is deserted..." Ryan said. "Let's just steal some keys and get on with it."

"I'd rather not," Leon said.

"Oh, whatever. We're living as convicts. We might as well act like it," Ryan said.

"We're not really convicts though. We need to pay!" Chris said.

"Argh! I just want a place to sleep!" Ryan jumped behind the counter, and took the key that had a '2' on it. "Claire, Leon, what do you want?"

They all looked at him in disbelief.

"Does it look like this place is occupied? I didn't think so. Now let's get on with it!" 

  
"Fine. We'll take¾" Claire's gaze moved over the board full of keys¾ "five."

"Seven." Leon said.

Ryan tossed them the '6' key, and they gave him a bad look.

"Chris?" Ryan said. 

Chris hid his face with his right hand, and mumbled, "Ten."

Ryan threw him the key.

"Well, Sherry, looks like you're with me," Ryan said.

Sherry smiled.

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"Hey, Ryan!" Sherry asked. "Want to have a snowball fight or something?"

Ryan was lying down in his bed, trying to get some sleep. He groaned and rolled over.

"No...sorry, Sher...I was up driving since God knows when. Let me get some sleep. Wake me up in four hours," Ryan said, half awake.

"You sure that's enough?"

"I need to keep my sleeping schedule in check..."

"Okay. See you at twelve."

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"'The sound of the blow tore into his head. Then Mariko's voice began again, and there was a second blow and Blackthorne was on his feet in an instant, the shoji open. The guard stood facing him balefully in the corridor outside Mariko's door, sword ready. 

'Blackthorne was preparing to launch himself at the samurai when the door at the far end of the corridor opened. Fujiko, her hair loose and flowing over the sleeping kimono, approached, the sound of ripping cloth and another clout seemingly not touching her at all. She bowed politely to the guard and stood between them, then bowed meekly to Blackthorne and took his arm, motioning him back into the room. He saw the taut readiness of the samurai. He had only one pistol and one bullet at the moment so he retreated. Fujiko followed and shut the shoji behind her. Then, very afraid, she shook her head warningly and touched a finger to her lips and shook her head again, her eyes pleading with him. 

Sherry listened silently and intently to Ryan's storytelling. Even though she hadn't known him as long as she knew Claire and Leon, or even Chris, she had gotten close to Ryan over the last several months. He was a little like the big brother she never had.

'"_Gomen nasai, wakarimasu ka?" _she breathed_._

'But he was concentrating on the wall of the adjoining room that he could smash in so easily. She looked at the wall also, then put herself between him and the wall, and sat, motioning him to do the same.

'But he could not. He stood readying himself for the charge that would destroy them all, goaded by a whimper that followed another blow.

'"_Iye!" _Fujiko shook in terror.

'He waved her out of the way. 

'"_Iye, iye,"_ she begged again.

'"_IMA!"_

'At once Fujiko got up and motioned him to wait as she rushed noiselessly for the swords that lay in front of the _takonama_, the little alcove of honor. She picked up the long sword, her hands shaking, drew it out of the scabbard, and prepared to follow him through the wall. At that instant there was a final blow and a rising torrent of rage. The other shoji slammed open, and unseen, Buntaro stamped away, followed by the guard. There was a moment of silence in the house, then the sound of the garden gate crashing closed.

Ryan's face displayed the anguish of the story, and Sherry was struck again by how old he looked for being only fifteen. Of course, he had seen and done much more than the average teenager, but at moments of clam like this, it was especially noticeable. Even his voice, when he narrated the story, sounded deeper than most boys'...more mature, maybe, or more weary.

'Blackthorne went for his door. Fujiko darted in the way, but he shoved her aside and pulled the door open.

'Mariko was still on her knees in one corner of the next room, a livid welt on her cheek, hair disheveled, her kimono in tatters, bad bruises on her thighs and lower back.

'He rushed over to pick her up but she cried out, "Go away, please go away Anjin-san!"

'He saw the trickle of blood from one corner of her mouth. "Jesus, how bad are you—"

'"I told you not to interfere. Please go away," she said in the same calm voice that belied the violence in her eyes. Then she saw Fujiko, who had stayed at the doorway. She spoke to her. Fujiko obediently took Blackthorne's arm to lead him away but he tore out of her grasp.

'"Don't! _Iye!_"

'Mariko said, "Your presence here takes away my face, and gives me no peace or comfort and shames me. Go away!"

'"I want to help. Don't you understand?"

'"Don't you understand? You have no rights in this. This is a private quarrel between husband and wife."

'"That's no excuse for hitting¾"

'"Why don't you listen, Anjin-san? He can beat me to death if he wishes. He has the right and I wish he would¾even that! Then I wouldn't have to endure the shame. You think it's easy to live with my shame? Didn't you hear what I told you? _I'm Akechi Jinsai's daughter!_"

'"That's not your fault. You did nothing!"

'"It is my fault and I am my father's daughter." Mariko would have stopped there. But, looking up and seeing his compassion, his concern, and his love, and knowing how he so honored the truth, she allowed some of her veils to fall.

Sherry studied Ryan's face as he read, and as he spoke of the character Blackthorne, she thought about how much Ryan was like the hero. His face, and his especially his eyes, had a deep-rooted compassion, and concern, and even love. And, while there was no blood between them, Sherry couldn't imagine having a better surrogate brother than Ryan.

'"Tonight was my fault, Anjin-san," she said. "If I would weep as he wants, beg for forgiveness as he wants, cringe and be petrified and fawn as he wants, and open my legs in pretended terror as he desires, do all these womanly things that my duty demands, then he'd be like a child in my hand. But I will not."

'"Why?"

'"Because that's my revenge. To repay him for leaving me alive after the treachery. To repay him for sending me away for eight years and leaving me alive all that time. And to repay him for ordering me back into life and for leaving me alive." She sat back painfully and arranged her tattered kimono closer to her. "I'll never give myself to him again. Once I did, freely, even though I detested him from the first moment I saw him."

'"Then why did you marry him? You've said women here have rights of refusal, that they don't have to marry against their wishes."

'"I married him to please Lord Goroda, and to please my father. I was so young I didn't know about Goroda then, but if you want the truth, Goroda was the cruelest, most loathsome man that was ever born. He drove my father to treachery. That's the real truth! Goroda!" She spat the name. "But for him we'd all be alive and honored. I pray to God that Goroda is committed to hell for all eternity." She moved carefully, trying to ease the agony in her side. "There's only hatred between my husband and me, that's our _karma. _It would be so easy for him to allow me to climb into the small place of death."

'"Why doesn't he let you go? Divorce you? Even grant you what you what you want?"

'"Because he's a man." A ripple of pain went through her and she grimaced. Blackthorne was on his knees beside her, cradling her. She pushed him away, fought for control. Fujiko, at the doorway, watched stoically.

'"I'm all right Anjin-san. Please leave me alone. You mustn't. You must be careful."

'"I'm not afraid of him."'" Ryan's voice drifted off as he finished reading aloud from the book _Shogun_.

"I think that's all for tonight, Sherry." Ryan said as he bookmarked his page and placed his book down.

Ever since a month and a half ago, Ryan had made it a personal mission to read _Shogun_ to Sherry, thinking that she was old enough to understand, and he would take his time explaining things that she didn't understand.

"Now that was screwed up. Buntaro got away with beating on his wife?" Sherry said, somewhat dumbfounded.

"Well, you have to understand, Sherry, that in Japan back in the 1600's, a husband basically owned his wife," Ryan explained. "He even had the right to kill his wife if she was caught behind closed doors with another man, no matter who the person was."

"Harsh laws."

"Its just how their laws and customs worked. To them, our laws and customs are considered barbaric."

Sherry gave a small yawn, turned off the light, and covered herself with the sheets.

"Good night."

"Yeah."

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_ _

_Two days later..._

The blizzard lasted a whole day, so they weren't really up to going anywhere, and spent most of their time in the hotel. Outside brought a whole new meaning to the term 'winter wonderland.' Four feet of snow covered the ground and buildings for as far as the eye could see. 

Leon was in the lobby of the hotel, typing an e-mail to his sister using the computer at the desk.

'_Dear Megan_,

_It's me, Leon. It's been a long time. (two years to be exact) So what are you doing now? How are things over there at University of California? Are you getting good grades? What am I saying? Of course you are. You're a Kennedy. Kennedys don't get bad grades. Please excuse my rambling. Anyway, if you were wondering how I'm doing'_

Leon paused for thought.

'Should I tell her? If she learns of this what I've been doing, it'll place her in danger with Umbrella...' He thought.

'_great. I just met this wonderful woman, (she's about your age, maybe a little older) named Claire Redfield. I'll send you a picture as an attachment file. Just wanted to check up on you._

_ _

_Later, (with love)_

_ _

_Leon_'

Leon then looked through his 3.5" floppy for a picture of him and Claire to send to his sister. Finally finding the one he was looking for, he attached the file to his message and clicked 'send.' The picture was of Leon and Claire when the crew stopped off at the Six Flags in Illinois. It showed Leon on the left side of the picture and Claire on the right, each with an arm around the other and giving the 'peace' sign with the other hand. They were smiling broadly, as if there was nothing else going on in the world except for them.

Leon turned off the computer, and Claire stepped into the room from the outside, shivering. Leon, seeing that she was cold, took his jacket from the coat hanger and draped it around her.

"Whatya doing?" she asked.

"What are _you_ doing without a coat on?"

"It was just about fifteen or twenty yards from here to our room."

"Still, it's below freezing out there."

"You still haven't answered my question." Claire said, a hint of annoyance in her voice.

"I was typing an e-mail to my sister."

"All right. Come back to the room with me. It's getting late."

Without hesitation, Leon grabbed his coat and followed her out the door and back to their hotel room.

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They had been watching the television for an hour or two, so it was now 7 PM and dark outside.

'Hmmm...I think I'll ask him now...a long shower just isn't like the real thing,' Claire thought as she lifted her head up from Leon's lap, and sat up.

"You know, Leon...We haven't had any time together for a month and a half..." Claire said, as she turned her head to face Leon, a devilish smile curving her lips. "So I was thinking that we could...you know..."

Leon scratched his chin, then smiled.

"You're right," Leon said as he got up from the bed. "Come on. Get your coat on, and don't forget your gloves, snow pants, and a second layer."

'What the heck? Does he even know what I'm talking about?' Claire thought. 'Oh hell. Might as well play along.'

They got dressed in their snow clothes, and soon were out side in a very large field.

"So what did you exactly want to take me out here for?" Claire asked, her back to Leon.

"This," He answered simply.

Claire gave a yelp of surprise as she found herself being lifted of the ground by Leon, and thrown into a mound of snow. She hit the snow with a dull 'thump.' She then rolled over to face Leon. He was laughing his ass off.

"That wasn't fair!" Claire complained, and cleaned her face of snow. "Now help me up."

Leon walked over to her, reaching out a hand, but was caught off guard as he found himself being yanked into the snow pile next to Claire.

"My God, you are so gullible, Leon!" Claire said between fits of laughter. "An eye for an eye, eh?"

Leon whipped the snow from his face.

"Ha, ha. Very funny."

"Yes, very."

At that remark, both started laughing.

"You think that that's funny, huh?" Leon said.

"Yep. You got a problem?" She replied.

"Sort of." Suddenly, Leon flung his arm that Claire couldn't see at her, which was full of snow.

Leon started laughing.

"Hahaha! Gotcha!"

"No. I gotcha." And Claire did that same trick that Leon pulled. Now she was laughing.

"You're dead," Leon said as he got up. "I'll give you a five-second headstart, now go!"

Claire started trudging through the snow as fast as she could, but Leon soon caught up with her and tackled her to the ground.

Leon looked down at Claire's face as closely as he could, as if she were a priceless piece of art.

"What is it?" Claire asked slightly embarrassed. "Is there something on my face?"

"It's just that I love you so much," Leon said. "Every time I see you, you amaze me with your beauty and personality. I just can't bear to be without you."

"Nice line."

Leon frowned. "I mean it, Claire."

"I know, silly."

He lowered his head to hers, and they kissed, not minding the biting cold of the Alaskan winter.

A little while later, they separated. A small grin curved on Leon's face.

"I'm still not done with you." he said.

"Oh really? What ya gonna do?"

"Well...Are you ticklish?"

Claire squealed as Leon started to tickle her below the ribs.

"Ahhhhh! Leon...hahaha!...s...stop...it...ahahaha!"

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Chris watched the scene from his window. Leon and Claire were throwing snowballs at each other and laughing like schoolchildren all the way. Chris smiled.

'Heh...She really likes this guy...She hasn't laughed like that since she was a kid,' Chris thought.

"Jill..." Chris said his thoughts out loud.

'Why are you saying her name? For Christ's Sake, she's your fellow co-worker...Well, ex-co-worker, but she's a friend nonetheless. Nothing high as to that degree.' Chris scolded himself.

He walked over to his bed, pulled up the covers, and turned out the lights.

'Let's hope that her happiness lasts...' Chris thought as he slowly drifted off into a sleepy twilight.

Author's note: Yeah, no action. Well, I want to start off kind of slow. I'm thinking of putting in action in the second or third chapter (probably the third). My thanks go to my proofreader, F. Buckley, my copyeditor, Mayumi_H, and my beta readers Catalina, Red Kat 9, and Jack the Ripper. Got anything you think that this story might need? Then feel free to e-mail me with suggestions. ([xenogears15@hotmail.com][1]) 

Once again, Shogun is written by James Clavell, and was used without any intent to plagiarize, or steal credit. The quoted text was from pages 576-578 in the book.

_Gomen nasai, wakarimasu ka? (GO-men-nas-I, wakare-mas-ka) / So/very sorry, understand?_

_Iye (EE-yay)/No _

_Ima (E-ma)/Now. _

_Anjin (On-jean)/Pilot (The 'san' just means 'honorable pilot'. The Japanese characters in Shogun call _Blackthorne_ 'Anjin-san', because the 'th' sound in his name doesn't exist in the Japanese vocabulary)_

Side note: Give credit to Mayumi_H for writing Sherry's thoughts during the quoted text from _Shogun._

'Till next time,

_Ja ne!_

Draft: 1/17/01

Final: 2/26/01

   [1]: mailto:xenogears15@hotmail.com



	3. Resident Evil: The Seraphs, A New Friend...

Resident Evil

The Seraphs

By: Xenogears

Chapter two

In no way do I own the characters of Capcom's legacy, Resident Evil. They are used for non-profit purposes, only for entertainment.

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_Next Day..._

Ryan hawked and spit. To say the least, he was frustrated. He had gone out to look around the small town, because it had so far been deserted. So far he had checked every room of the six houses and two apartments, and he was cold, tired, and hungry. Even the winter coat he wore didn't fully protect him from the Alaskan weather, and the three-and-a-half-foot deep snow didn't make it any easier. 

"Goddamnit," Ryan cursed under his breath. "If this last house at the end of the block doesn't have anyone in it, I'm goin' back."

A short trudge through the snow brought him to the doorstep of the last house at the end of the block.

He pulled out his newly acquired Colt .45, and knocked on the door.

No response. He tried again. Still no response.

He kicked at the door, but it held its ground.

"Wise guy, huh?" Ryan said crossly. "Eat this!"

He placed his Colt .45 at the door lock, and pulled the trigger.

_Pow!_

The door gave, cracking open a little. He pushed it slowly, and scanned the room with his gun. He was in the living room. He could see that most of the house was on the first floor, the living room connected to the dining room by a large archway, and the kitchen beyond it. White walls and plushy, deep royal blue carpet set off a few good pieces of expensive furniture in the front rooms. A winding walnut staircase, carpeted in the same plush blue, rose at his right to the second floor, and under the risers was a closed door leading, Ryan assumed, to the basement. He walked slowly, his footsteps hushed on the soft carpet, through the front rooms into the kitchen.

'Might as well fill my stomach,' he thought.

He opened the fridge, and in the cold light surveyed the well-stocked shelves.

'Let's see,' he thought. '2 percent milk, orange juice, instant food, peanut butter, jelly, more instant food, carrots, salad, cabbage, butter, Chinese-' 

His thoughts were stopped by a sound coming from the pantry.

Cautiously he walked toward the sound. Images of a Hunter leaping out of the pantry flashed through his mind.

"Shut up! I know that that won't happen!" Ryan chided himself.

He rested his hand on the pantry doorknob.

'All right...One...two...three!'

And he flung open the door. 

"YAAAAHHHHHH!" From inside the pantry came the warlike cry.

The next thing he knew, he was on the floor, staring up at a girl with green eyes and long untied black hair that fell halfway to her knees, in a red T-shirt and blue jeans and a gold chain around her neck. She looked very edgy, and she was hefting a frying pan threateningly in her right hand. Ryan gaped at her, waiting for her to make her move. Then she spoke in a touchy voice:

"_Daré desu ka?"_

Ryan realized that she was Japanese.

"Ryan Davidson," he answered in the calmest voice he could muster.

The young woman looked skeptically at him for a moment, and Ryan thought that he saw her eyes change color for a second. "_Nihon-go-o hanashimasu ka?_

"_Hai,_" He replied. "_Ei-go-o hanashimasu ka?"_

_ _

_ _

"Yes," she replied in English, but with a slight Japanese twang. "I suppose you do, too?"

"Yeah. May I ask who you are, and why you came at me with a kitchen utensil?" Ryan said, slowly rising from the floor.

"Sorry about that. I just thought you were another one of those men in masks with machine guns. My name's Anna. Anna Yamaguchi."

Ryan froze.

"Wait a minute, you said men in masks with machine guns? Do you mean Umbrella?"

"Umbrella?" She asked, puzzled. "What would the international drug company have to do with a bunch of terrorists?"

"Uhhh...nothing. Do you know who they were?"

  
"No. All I know is that they found everyone but me and my friend, Mark, and sent them to the school on the north edge of town."

"So that's where everyone went..." Ryan thought out loud. "Hey, why didn't anyone fight back? And where's Mark?"

"They caught us off guard, and there were so many of them. About a hundred and twenty-five. The town population is only four hundred. I think Mark went to the school. He wanted to explore it to see if what the men were looking for was in the building. He left about an hour ago."

"So they appeared out of nowhere and marched the entire town to the school?"

"That's just about it."

Ryan looked hard at her, seeing if she was lying or not.

'Something just doesn't add up here...' he thought.

"So how did you avoid them?"

"We hid."

"Were your parents taken to the school?"

"Yes, my mother at least," she said, and her face darkened. "Everyone's dead. They took them in there and shot them all. Execution style. From the oldest woman to the youngest child."

'Those sick SOB's...' Ryan thought.

"How do you know?"

"After we came out of hiding, we checked everywhere. When we came to the school, we found them all there, piled up in one big hallway. Riddled with bullets. Not a single one was left alive. My mother was among them."

"What about your father?"

"He works for Umbrella in the L.A. branch. Thank God he wasn't here when this happened."

"Wow...I'm sorry."

"Don't be. You just leave things that happened alone and don't regret it."

"Does he know what happened here?"

"No. All the phone lines are cut, and all the vehicles in town are either buried in snow, or just plain not working."

Ryan considered all this news. "One last question. How long have you been here?"

"Five days."

There was a thick silence.

Regaining some of her composure, Anna asked, "You look hungry. Need anything?"

"_Hai_," he replied.

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_ _

_Back in Sherry and Ryan's room..._

"He went looking around?" Chris asked Sherry. "Did he take the .45 I gave him?"

"Yeah. I think so."

Chris looked off into the distance.

"Well, at least he's protected," Chris said. "How's your gun training going?"

"Pretty good. I can hit targets at longer distances now."

After a pause, she asked, her voice deep with concern, "Do you think that we should go looking for him?" 

"Naw," Chris replied in a tone that suggested he wasn't worried. "He'll be fine. He's a tough kid, you know."

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Ryan sat with Anna in the living room sipping a cup of hot chocolate.

"Quite a story, Mr. Davidson," Anna said.

"It's Ryan. I HATE the title Mister."

Ryan picked up a Nutter Butter™from the coffee table between them.

"Okay, 'Ryan'."

Anna glanced at his gun, which he carried in a leather shoulder holster.

"I've been meaning to ask you," Anna began. "Why do you carry a gun around?"

"I usually carry three. Why...I can't tell you. Sorry."

"Can you let me see it?"

"Sure."

Ryan took out his Colt .45, ejected the magazine, and unloaded the chamber. He then handed the weapon to Anna.

"It's a little heavy..." she commented.

She aimed the weapon at an imaginary target, and by the way she did it, Ryan could she that she knew what she was doing.

"Know how to use a gun?" Ryan asked.

"Kinda."

She handed him back his firearm, and reached over for some potato chips.

"So how do you manage to stay occupied in a town out in the middle of nowhere like this?" Ryan asked.

"This place actually has a few kids, and a park," she replied between munches. "Not to mention an arcade. Besides, every kid in town has a Playstation™ or something like that."

"I know that I would be bored out of my mind in a place like this," Ryan said.

"City kid, huh?"

"Yeah. You look like one yourself."

"Well, to tell the truth, I used to live in New York City."

"One of the most dangerous cities in the world?"

"I lived in one of the good parts of town."

"What made you want to come here?"

"Not me. My mother. She wanted to get away from my father in L.A. Now," she looked down, "they're separated more than ever." 

Ryan checked his watch. 2:32 PM. 

"Shoot, I gotta get back to the others. Wanna come with me?" Ryan offered as he stood up.

"No. I'm fine here," she replied.

Like a good hostess, Anna escorted Ryan to the door.

He turned from the doorstep. "Hang tight. I'll be back later." 

With a raised hand she motioned goodbye. 

Anna closed the door. She waited until Ryan was out of sight, then she started chuckling to herself.

'Ah_..._it's him for sure...' she thought. 'I should tell Vickers...'

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Ryan walked into the lobby of the hotel, to find the whole group gathered in low conversation. They turned to greet Ryan and he sat, heavily. As well as he could he described what had happened to the town. When he finished, Chris spoke up.

"This is some pretty heavy stuff here."

"Ten to one Umbrella's involved." Claire put in, with a hint of malice.

"Yeah, that's why I say we stay and figure this whole thing out," Ryan said.

"What?" Leon was a little baffled. "Whatdya mean 'figure this whole thing out'? We need to get _out_ of here. Don't you remember that we're trying to run from Umbrella?"

"Yeah, but the troops are gone. I don't know where to, but I think that there is a lab in the basement of the town school."

"So we'll be faced with at least a hundred and twenty-five heavily armed soldiers? Nuh-uh. We're outta here," Chris said.

"Come on, guys! Don't you know when people like that devise their most hazardous inventions they do it out in deserted places like this? This could be something big." Ryan waved his arms dramatically to drive home his point. "We have a moral obligation to stop this!" 

"The answer is no," Chris said, standing up to leave. "We find this new friend of yours, and then leave. Everyone get everything packed and ready to go for tomorrow."

Ryan's shoulders slumped in resignation.

"Since when did we elect you as our leader?" He mumbled under his breath.

"I heard that," Chris, preparing to leave the room, shot back to Ryan.

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_Later that night..._

_ _

_ _

He could see the hotel in the distance. Not very far away. He knew that this would be his only chance to keep them here, and not blow his cover about who he was. He ran over to the minivan that the so-called outlaws owned, careful to stay out of sight from the streetlights and windows.

Taking a deep breath, he crept over to the vehicle, and concentrated. He found the gas tank and then set to work. He ran around the corner, then looked back at the minivan. He pointed his right index finger forward, then raised his hand, and the van exploded into a fiery ball of flame. He turned from the inferno and ran in the direction of the school.

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Leon was awakened by a violent explosion. He didn't need to awaken Claire, for she was instantly up and out of bed. It was a trait that seemed to happen on reflex after being on the run for so long. They quickly dressed and went outside, and were soon followed by Chris, Sherry, and Ryan. What they saw scared them. Their only means of escape was in front of them, destroyed.

"I could pick many words to describe this situation," Sherry said ruefully. "But It just think I'll go with, 'This sucks.'"

Leon gazed out into the flames, and reflected that he was at least partly relieved that they had brought most of their equipment inside; there was no move left for them but to regroup and readdress their task of stopping Umbrella.

Author's note: My thanks go out to, once again, my proofreader, F. Buckley, my copyeditor, Mayumi_H and my beta readers Catalina, Red Kat 9, and Jack the Ripper.

_Hai (said to same way as, "Hi" in English)/Yes/fine etc._

_Dare desu ka? (Da-ray-des-ka)/Who are you?_

_ _

_ _

_Nihon-go-o hanshimusu ka? (NI-hon-go-o-hana-shi-mas-ka)/Do you speak Japanese?_

_ _

_ _

_Eigo-o hanashimusu ka (EE-go-o-hana-shi-mas-ka)Do you speak English?_

Draft: 2/6/01

Final: 3/13/01

__


	4. Resident Evil: The Seraphs, What lies Un...

Resident Evil

The Seraphs

By: Xenogears

Chapter three

In no way do I own the characters of Capcom's legacy, Resident Evil. They are used for non-profit purposes, only for entertainment.

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__

Later that night...

"Damnit," Chris cursed. "What are we gonna do now? Our only ride out of here was just destroyed!"

"Looks like we'll be going up against Umbrella again, huh?" Ryan said smugly.

"This isn't some sort of game, Ryan," Claire said crossly. "This is life and death. You should know that by now."

"Jeez, just tryin' to lighten up the situation," he said in defense. "Sorry I said anything."

  
"But he does have a point," Sherry interjected. "We have nothing else to do, and we need to stop Umbrella, right? Then we have to destroy this lab, if it really does exist in the school."

Her words made sense to everyone.

"Well," Leon said. "Looks like our options are either freeze to death walking in Alaskan winter weather looking for the next town, or we investigate this matter and find another way out of here."

"You spoke my mind," Chris said. "All right, people, let's suit up!"

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__

By the time they reached the school doors, an hour and a mile and a half from the hotel, they were beyond freezing. When they opened the wooden doors, the warm relief of a heated room rushed over them. 

The room was small for a lobby, simple and plainly furnished, with walls of what looked and smelled like Ponderosa pinewood. A few wooden benches sat to either side of the room, and a square of fluorescent light glowed from the ceiling. On one wall was a large bulletin board hung with various school flyers and forms: nothing to cause alarm. Across from them was a glass-windowed door, and beyond it they could see a little of the rest of the school.

Chris took the lead, crossing the lobby to unlatch the door. 

They stood before the closed door of the front office, a hallway leading off left and right. Chris motioned them down the left hall.

They walked silently past two more closed doors without windows, to where the hall ended at a pair of double doors. Chris pushed them open, and they were in another hallway leading off to the left. Classrooms for early grades lined the hallway on their right, and a windowless door with a sign over it reading 'Courtyard' was the sole feature on the opposite wall. Very much like any school anywhere¾ except for the smears of dried brown blood splattered all over the walls and floors, and various empty brass bullet casings.

"I don't get it," Ryan said with a look of disbelief. "I...I thought that Anna said that the civilians were lined up in the hallways! What the heck happened?!"

"Calm down," Chris said. "Those Umbrella bastards must have moved them to another location."

"What for?" Ryan asked.

"Hell if I know," Chris answered.

Leon picked two of the casings. One read '9mm Auto'; the other read '5.56mm Auto.'

"Judging by this," Leon said. "It looks like they were using MP5s."

When Chris tried the courtyard door it was locked. They had to move on. 

At the far end of the hall, an open staircase led down to the basement and up to the second floor. Chris led them up the stairs to the second floor. After a half an hour search of the second floor, they turned up nothing, so they went down into the basement. The only door down the bowels of the school was a rusty door that had a nameplate that read 'Boiler Room'. The sound was faint, but the Boiler could be heard chugging and hissing behind the door. 

Chris opened it. The boiler was big and rusted. Almost big enough to fill up the entire room. Finding a way around it, they ended up at a wall.

"Great," Claire commented over the noise. "What do we do now?"

"Look around," Chris answered. "If I know Umbrella, there's got to be something here. Like a hidden key pad or something."

They split up and searched for something that, with luck, would lead to the labs. Chris looked around and found a pillar that looked suspicious; it looked newer than the room. 'Hmmmm...' His eyes traveled up and down the length of it. 'I wonder what this could be?'

He worked his hands around it, feeling for something out of place. He stopped when his hands brushed over a crack in the pillar. As his fingers probed more closely, he discovered that the crack was in a square shape. Smiling, he pushed it. There was a loud mechanical clang, and a part of the wall slid upward into the ceiling.

"All right Chris!" Chris heard Ryan say over the boiler.

They pressed on past the portal in the wall. The new area that they were in was small, and its walls were of the same old-looking material that walled the previous room. But when they all moved into the small space, there was another loud mechanical clang, and the doorway slid down from the ceiling once more. They felt themselves sinking weirdly through space, and realized that they were in an elevator, going down. 

They had found the main entrance to the labs.

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The elevator stopped abruptly, and the door opened. The location was, no doubt, the lab they were looking for. The place looked like all the other labs they had seen: everything was made out of some type of metal that looked like steel, and bright fluorescent lights beamed from the ceiling. They were in a long hallway that had a door on the right, on the left, and one at the end of the hall. What surprised them most was the stench of death, much like the pall of decay that hovered over Raccoon and Bhrams.

"_Déjà vu_, huh?" Sherry remarked.

"Tell me about it..." Chris said. "Okay, Leon, Claire, take right. Ryan, Sherry, take left. I got point."

They complied and went their separate ways.

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Ryan pressed the button on the side panel of the door, and it hissed open. The room that they entered was what looked like a filing room. He checked to the left and right, then motioned Sherry through. He relaxed his guard a bit, and then started checking the shelves for any useful information they could use.

Pow! Pow! Pow!

Ryan spun around.

Pow! Pow! Pow!

_BLAM!_

He then realized that the shots were coming from off in the distance.

"Be okay guys..." Ryan breathed to himself. "Don't worry about that, Share, it was either Leon, Claire, or Chris shooting at something. I know they're okay."

"Do you think they're shooting at zombies?" Sherry asked with concern in her voice.

"I don't think so. We didn't see any on our way here, did we?"

"Then what are they shooting at?"

"I don't know. I just hope you're wrong."

They started looking through the shelves again.

Ryan passed up several folders such as B.O.W. listings like the one they already had from Bhrams, staff listings, financial reports, animal testing, and the like. But one report caught his eye.

He opened the folder and leafed though the twenty-five-page document. A few pages from the end, he stopped.

"Hey, Share! Come take a look at this!"

Sherry rushed over to him, and he began to read it aloud.

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Dr. Jared Vickers: Personal List

Page 23

ID Number: WKD4496

Name: Claire Redfield

Age: 19

Sex: Female

Blood Type: O

Height: 5.545 ft.

Weight: 115.5 lb.

Compatible: No

ID Number: MRD6251

Name: Chris Redfield

Age: 25

Sex: Male

Blood Type: O

Height: 5.938 ft.

Weight: 177.5 lb.

Compatible: No

ID Number: MKD2931

Name: Leon S. Kennedy

Age: 24

Sex: Male

Blood Type: AB

Height: 5.908 ft.

Weight: 166.4 lb.

Compatible: No

ID Number: WCD1126

Name: Sherry Birkin

Age: 13

Sex: Female

Blood Type: A+

Height: 5.039 ft.

Weight: 84 lb.

Compatible: No

ID Number: MHD9042

Name: Ryan J. Davidson

Age: 15

Sex: Male

Blood Type: OB-

Height: 6.092 ft.

Weight: 141.5 lb.

Compatible: Yes

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What Ryan saw next made him freeze with shock.

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ID Number: WBD0059

Name: Anna Yamaguchi

Age: 15

Sex: Female

Blood Type: O-

Height: 5.729 ft.

Weight: 110.2 lb.

Compatible: Yes (tested)

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Ryan read it again. And again. And again. He still couldn't believe it.

"What does Anna have to do with Umbrella?" he mused out loud.

"Anna?" Sherry asked. "Oh, you mean that girl you met in town yesterday?"

Ryan nodded.

"And just what the hell do they mean by 'compatible'?" he again said out loud.

"I don't know, but yours says 'Yes' in that category..."

I think that you already know whom my thanks go out to, so I'll go on to my announcement:

In chapter two, I spelled _Nihon-go-o hanashimusu ka, _and _Eigo-go-o hanashimusu ka, _with a 'mas' to replace the 'mus'. Well, actually, it's said as 'mus' not 'mas'. Sorry for any confusion I may have caused.

Draft: 2/29/01

Final: 3/10/01


	5. Resident Evil: The Seraphs, The Labs/Tre...

Resident Evil

The Seraphs

By: Xenogears

Chapter four

In no way do I own the characters of Capcom's legacy, Resident Evil. They are used for non-profit purposes, only for entertainment.

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Claire pressed the 'open' button on the keypad next to the door, and the door slid to the side. 

When she stepped into the new room, she was greeted by ten lab workers. Ten zombified lab workers. Without wasting a second, she raised her Winchester .38 rifle, and fired.

_Pow! Pow! Pow!_

She had put two to rest, blowing off their heads, and had hit one in the chest, exposing rotting internal organs.

Leon then stepped up and fired his SPAS 12 at head level.

_BLAM! Cachunk. BLAM! Cachunk._

The remaining zombies fell to the floor.

Now that there was time to reload and look around the room, they saw that they were in a chemical testing and developing room. Suddenly wishing that they had taken more time to look at their surroundings, they started to look for any broken vials. It was a relief not to find any.

"Jeez," Leon said. "Lucky we didn't hit any thing like a T-virus vial."

"Yeah..." Claire replied. "Hey, what's this?"

She picked up a vial from a table in the center of the room that contained a dark purple liquid. The label on it read "AE²-virus." The one next to it held a deep blue substance, and read "AW-virus." The one next to that was red in color, and its label read "AF-virus."

"AE²? AW? AF? What the hell is that?"

Leon was reluctant to tamper with anything. "Beat's me, but I think that maybe we should leave it here."

"What? Why? We could use it as evidence against Umbrella! We may be able to finally take 'em down!"

"Think about it, Claire," Leon said, his voice matter-of-fact. "We don't know what this can do. Plus, we don't know what will happen. What if you fall and it breaks?"

Leon paused.

"I don't want anything happening to you." 

Reluctantly, Claire placed the vial back in its place on the table.

"Okay, let's keep going."

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Chris raised his S&W M629C .44 caliber magnum. Scanning his surroundings, he found himself in another long hallway. But he wasn't alone. He backed away from the spot where the Licker was on the ceiling, just in time before it landed on the floor in the exact space where he had been standing.

Without missing a beat, Chris pulled the trigger on his M629C. The Licker didn't even get time to scream, for the bullet splattered its head all over the hallway.

Allowing himself a tight smile, Chris continued down the hallway, which had one door off to the right, and one at the end of the hallway.

He chose the door on the right. The room he had just entered was sleeping quarters. Chris counted twenty bunk beds lined up on either side of the room. Though the lights were very dim, he could see that the room was quite tidy. It looked as if it hadn't been touched for weeks. The cabinets next to the beds told a different story. They looked ransacked¾ everything from work-related papers to various personal belongings. He rummaged quickly through them, but found nothing to interest him.

One cabinet above one of the bunk beds was closed. Chris walked over to it and casually opened it. He instantly rebounded backward and almost fell over when he saw a body fall out of the closet. It was formally human, but the corpse looked as if it had been through not one but several zombie meals. Its face was frozen in a death scream. Its legs, torn open in various places, were hanging on by a few thin strands of tendon. Its chest was torn open, and the ribcage gaped. Though Chris wasn't a doctor, he could clearly see that there were a few vital organs missing. The neck was torn through on both sides, but the only thing missing form the head was one eyeball.

Chris, barely able to stand the smell, backed up another step and forced himself to breathe through his mouth. 

Just as he turned for the door, he heard something behind him move. Though he had a good idea what it was, he turned around anyway. The corpse, emitting hungry moans, was now slowly crawling toward Chris, closing the gap. 

'Lo and behold,' Chris thought.

"Pssshhhh! Please!" 

He brought his right foot up¾

"Nighty-night."

¾ and brought it crashing down on the head of the zombie. There was a sound that was between a 'mush' and a 'crack,' and the zombie moved no more.

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__

One hour later...

They had finished exploring the first two floors of the labs, and were now on their way back to the hotel. The elevator stopped at the boiler room of the school. Ryan and Sherry had not explained anything about the document they had found, because Ryan, 'didn't want to alarm anyone.' Sherry suspected that he was protecting Anna in some way, so he could get the answers himself.

Just as Sherry left the elevator, she saw something move in the darkness just behind the boiler.

"Hey!" she exclaimed.

A figure disappeared into the shadows of the room.

  
"What's wrong, Sherry?" Claire called.

"I...I saw something move over there..." Sherry replied.

"Don't worry, sweetie," Claire replied. "It was probably just a rat or something."

"No! It was too big to be a rat! It looked human!"

"Let's just worry about this tomorrow, _neh_?" Ryan, his voice laced with fatigue, turned to the girls.

"He's got a point," Chris said as he checked his watch. "It's already 2:30 in the morning."

Sherry was hesitant to comply, but she put the sighting out of her mind and followed them back to the hotel.

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__

Next day...

Ryan had awakened early, on account of how late he had been up. His watch read 10:43 AM. He quickly wrote out a note and taped it to the door of the bathroom.

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'Share,

I went to check up on Anna. I really don't know when I'll be back, so don't wait up for me. Oh yeah, and tell the others, will you?

__

Dewa matte noshi-hodo, Sherry-chan! 

-Ryan'

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The last sentence was written in Hiragana, one of the Japanese forms of writing that Ryan had been trying to teach Sherry for the past few months. He was sure that she would understand what he wrote; it was one of the first phrases he had taught her. 

Exiting his room, he checked the gear he was carrying.

'Colt .45, four magazines, Beretta 92, five magazines, PPK/S, four magazines, canteen, that document we found, two packs of cigarettes, lighter, and muh good ol' switchblade.'

He shook his head as he remembered how he had acquired the switchblade.

He was 13 at the time, and he was always in trouble with someone, mostly the police. One day he walked into the local hardware store, and after five minutes of wandering around, found the best-looking switchblade. He had placed it in his sock and then calmly walked out. And after he thought about what he'd done, he'd never got the chance to bring it back over the last two years.

Just to test it, Ryan flicked the switchblade open. The five-inch blade was in nearly mint condition, and still as sharp as it was when it was new. He gave it a few swings, then retracted the blade and placed it with his cigarettes in the inside pocket of his hooded sweatshirt. 

Now prepared, he headed off.

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"If there's a such thing as Hell's Kitchen," Ryan remarked as he reached Anna's door, "then this is God's Icebox..."

Indeed it was. The weather had gotten worse since the day before, the cold was worse, winds were blowing hard, and there was a light snow.

Ryan thought of knocking on the door, but he just let himself in when he could hear the distinct sound of a piano playing. It took him only a seconds to realize what was being played. 'Fly Me to the Moon' in C major. 

He began to play the words in his head.

__

Fly me to the moon and let me play among the stars

Let me see what spring is like on Jupiter and Mars

He heard the music coming from upstairs. Casually, he began to walk up the stairs.

__

In other words hold my hand

In other words, darling, kiss me

When he reached the top of the stairs, he traced the sound to a room on his left at the far end of a hall.

__

Fill my heart with song and let me sing for evermore

You are all I long for all I worship and adore

He opened the door, and found Anna at a piano in a rather large room for a second floor. She looked as if she was flowing with the music, as if she was actually a part of it.

__

In other words, please be true

And for the first time, he thought of her as something more than an acquaintance. 'Beautiful...' he thought.

__

In other words, I love you

Ryan waited for the piano's chords to fade to silence before he greeted her.

"_Yoi, Anna-san!" _he said.

Anna turned around, surprised, but quickly her expression became friendly.

"_Domo arigato gozaimashite, Ryan-san."_

"_O-genki desu ka?_" he asked.

"_Hai, genki desu. Anata wa?_"

"_Hai._"

"You know, Ryan," Anna said, reverting to English, "you don't have to act like I'm some _gai-jin _to America or something."

"Sorry."

There was a moment of silence.

Ryan was about to ask Anna about the papers that he found when she spoke again.

"Ryan?"

"Yes?"

"Can I ask you a favor?"

"Sure."

"Um...well...it's about Mark...he's not back from the labs yet, and I'm starting to worry."

"What?"

"Can you help me look for him?" Anna pleaded.

"Yeah, I guess. Just let me go get the others."

"No!"

Her sudden outburst surprised him.

"I...I...mean...I want to start searching as soon as possible."

Ryan wondered whether he had the wrong idea about Anna.

"_Dozo_?"

Once again, Ryan saw Anna's eyes change color for a split second. He stopped himself just in time from saying "What the hell?"

"All right. Let's get ready."

Anna practically jumped on him to hug him.

"Oh! Thankyouthankyouthankyou!"

"Whoa. Turbo tongue."

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__

A little while later...

Ryan and Anna were in the school lobby.

"Hey, Anna."

"Yes?"

"Here, take this." 

Ryan drew out his Colt .45 and handed it to Anna.

"From what I saw of the labs, you'll need it," he said.

Anna stared at the gun for a moment before she took it.

"Thanks."

As they passed the courtyard door, Anna stopped him.

"Wait. Mark said something about a hidden passage to the labs before he left."

"He'd been here before?"

"Yeah. How else did we find out about all the dead bodies?"

"Point taken."

Anna turned the latch on the door and stepped outside, but then she halted.

"Oh...my...God..."

Ryan stepped past her.

"Holy shit..."

Ryan no longer wondered where the civilians were. They were right in front of them, piled up all over the large courtyard, some piles reaching seven feet high. Not only that, but the carnage was much worse than he had imagined. Most of the corpses were without their heads, and the rest were riddled with bloody holes. Ryan had seen and smelled death before, but not to this degree. Foul-tasting bile rose in his throat, and he fought to keep it down. But he lost his control, turned his head to the side, and vomited.

After losing the contents of his stomach, he raised a hand to an approaching Anna to signal that he was all right. He took out his canteen that had somehow not frozen yet, and washed the bad taste from his mouth and the burning sensation from his throat.

"Are you okay?" Anna asked with a sad and concerned look on her face.

"Yeah...just...let's...go on..."

He screwed the cap back on his canteen, then went to look around the courtyard. Anna went ahead of him, and felt around one of the walls. A square piece of earth in front of them sank below grade, and like the lid of a sunken box slid to the side, revealing a lift. 

Ryan thought it strange that she would find it so quickly, but he decided to save it for later.

They stepped onto the lift, and Ryan pressed the 'down' button.

It took a few minutes, but when the lift finally stopped, he could see someone hunched over at the end of the new hallway they were in.

"Mark!" Anna exclaimed.

Anna ran toward him, Ryan not far behind. Anna propped him up and he made a low groan. He had a wound on his forehead that was bleeding severely. He opened his brown eyes and said in a raspy tone, "Anna?"

The man's black hair brushed the shoulder of his blue long-sleeved shirt as his head lolled to the side.

"Mark! You're okay!"

"Yeah..." He tried to brush the dust from the thighs of his carpenter pants.

"What happened?" Ryan asked.

"I...don't know...this pink thing just dropped form the ceiling and knocked me out cold..."

"A Licker? Are you sure? If you're right, then you should be dead!" Ryan said.

"I guess I'm just lucky..." Mark replied.

Mark shakily rose to his feet, supported by Anna.

"Come on. We have to treat that wound." Anna said.

Ryan turned for the lift.

"Wait. Ryan," he heard Anna say.

"Wa¾ " As soon as he turned around, he saw the butt of the gun he gave Anna flying straight for his face. There was an explosion of pain, and then he was overtaken by the darkness of unconsciousness.

__

Yoi (YO-ee)/Good. (Note that it can also be said as 'ee')

Domo arigato gozaimashite (DO-mo-aree-ga-to-go-zai-ma-shi-ta)/It/that was very kind of you. (The way that Japanese women say 'thank you very much.' Men aren't supposed to use this term)

__

O-genki desu ka (O-genn-kee-des-ka)/How are you?

Hai, genki desu. Anata wa? (HI-genn-kee-des-auna-ta-wa)/Fine, thank you. And you?

__

Gai-jin (Gaee-jean)/Foreigner

__

Dozo? (Do-zoe)/Please?

Draft: 3/14/01

Final: 3/21/01


	6. Resident Evil: Ther Seraphs, Nightmares/...

"Mark

_"Mark!" Anna exclaimed._

_ _

_ _

_Anna ran toward him, Ryan not far behind. Anna propped him up and he made a low groan. He had a wound on his forehead that was bleeding severely. He opened his brown eyes and said in a raspy tone, "Anna?"_

_The man's black hair brushed the shoulder of his blue long-sleeved shirt as his head lolled to the side._

_ _

_"Mark! You're okay!"_

_ _

_ _

_"Yeah..." He tried to brush the dust from the thighs of his carpenter pants._

_ _

_ _

_"What happened?" Ryan asked._

_ _

_ _

_"I...don't know...this pink thing just dropped from the ceiling and knocked me out cold..."_

_ _

_ _

_"A Licker? Are you sure? If you're right, then you should be dead!" Ryan said._

_ _

_ _

_"I guess I'm just lucky..." Mark replied._

_ _

_ _

_Mark shakily rose to his feet, supported by Anna._

_ _

_ _

_"Come on. We have to treat that wound." Anna said._

_ _

_ _

_Ryan turned for the lift._

_ _

_ _

_"Wait. Ryan," he heard Anna say._

_ _

_ _

_"Wa__¾__ " As soon as he turned around, he saw the butt of the gun he gave Anna flying straight for his face. There was an explosion of pain, and then he was overtaken by the darkness of unconsciousness._

Resident Evil

The Seraphs

By: Xenogears

Chapter five

In no way do I own the characters of Capcom's legacy, Resident Evil. They are used for non-profit purposes, only for entertainment.

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Ryan didn't know how long he was out. The only thing he did know was that it seemed to be only a few seconds since he had been knocked in the head with something.

He slowly opened his eyes. The pain in his head was still fresh, so he tried his best to ignore it.

"Wh...what...happened?"

His face hardened when he recalled what happened.

"Anna!" Ryan spat.

He tried to move, but his limbs were stuck. He glanced at his legs and arms, which were strapped to a table exactly like the kind used in lethal injections. Needles were taped into veins in his left arm and left leg, and they were attached to transparent tubes that snaked out of his view behind him. He struggled uselessly against the restraints. He stopped when he heard a door slide open somewhere close by.

"Good job, Anna," he heard an adult voice say. "If I could reward you I would."

"Just knowing that this is for the betterment of mankind is reward enough," she responded.

Ryan was chilled to the bone by her response. Her voice was monotonal, and it sounded as if she actually believed in her own words.

"It looks like our subject is awake, Dr. Vickers," a voice that sounded like Mark said.

Soon enough, there were three people at his side, staring over him. One was a slightly heavyset man with blond hair, glasses, blue eyes, lab coat, and a trusting smile. But Ryan didn't buy that smile. The other two were Mark and Anna.

"Ryan Joseph Davidson, I presume?" Vickers said.

"No, Marco Polo," Ryan said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "What do you want with me?"

"Oh! Things that you could only imagine! I need you a new viral series that I have developed."

The first thing to go through Ryan's head was 'Shit! I'm dead!' He had to tell himself to be calm. "What will it do to me?"

"Good things," Anna said, her voice still monotonal. "Mark and I have had the procedure done on us, and it changed our lives...for the better."

Ryan visually flinched.

"So that's what the papers meant by 'tested'!" Ryan exclaimed.

"Oh...so you found that, did you?" Mark said. "Well then, I guess you know what will happen, don't you?"

"No. Not really."

"Let's get this started," Dr. Vickers said. "Anna, get the vials."

"You two-timer!" Ryan suddenly shouted. "I trusted you! And now you're one of the enemy? _Omae o koroso!_"

"You wouldn't go do something like that, now would you?" Anna said in an innocent voice.

"When I'm angry, I tend to do things that I normally wouldn't do."

"Trust me, Ryan," Anna said. "You will thank me for this later."

"If you live that long," Ryan answered with venom.

Ignoring him, Anna came back from one side of the room with a vial that was dark purple in color.

"Ah! Good choice, Anna! AE²!" Dr. Vickers said.

Anna slid the vial into a slot in a machine that stood at the table's head. She pressed a button.

"It's armed," she said.

Ryan's mouth went dry.

"Punch it," Vickers replied.

Anna pressed another button, and the machine started to emit a low hum, and the liquid was quickly drained from the vial. The tubes that led from the machine to his limbs started to fill up as the liquid began to slowly run down toward him like impending doom.

Two seconds after the liquid made contact with his blood stream, he could feel an itch starting in various places on his body. Claire's words about zombies then came back to him.

'It first starts out as itchiness, then headaches, nausea, and then unconsciousness. When you wake up, you'll be a full-fledged zombie.'

'No!' he thought. 'That ain't gonna happen! They said it would help you! Not kill you!'

The itchiness was creeping across his entire body. For four long seconds it itched intensely. Then it stopped.

"Stage one reached," he heard Mark say.

Then, without warning, pain started to explode from every nerve in his body. He resisted the urge to scream out, but he couldn't hold it.

"Aaaaaahhhhhhh¾¾¾¾ !!!"

"Damnit! Get me some morphine!" Vickers said.

"We don't know what will happen if we do!" Mark said.

"He's going into arrest!" Anna said frantically.

The pain increased, the sensations raging through the deep tissues of his body. Finally, his mind shut down against the raging sensations, and his vision went black. Once again, darkness overtook him.

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Chris scanned over the list for what seemed like the hundredth time. His eyes kept moving over the names, statistics, and compatibility factors. While it should have relieved him to know that he, his sister, Leon, and Sherry were incompatible with whatever this Dr. Vickers had planed, it still worried him that Ryan was considered a viable candidate. Plus, there was the added factor of the Yamaguchi girl.

Chris looked up from the paper and stared off into space.

It bothered him that they knew next to nothing about this Anna Yamaguchi, and the role she played in this ghost town. Ryan seemed to trust her, though, and that would have to do for now.

The events at the school didn't set him any more at ease. The fact that there were zombies, Lickers, and other B.O.W's in the area made him all the more anxious to figure out what the hell was going on in this town, and get out of it as soon as they could, he didn't want another Raccoon on his hands.

Chris pinched the bridge of his nose. No more Raccoons indeed.

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Ryan opened his eyes. He was lying, unrestrained, on a cot in an empty room with one small balcony window. Shades were drawn down over it, preventing him from seeing outside. As his sight cleared, he gazed around, looking for a clue to where he was.

rap rap rap rap

Ryan turned toward the sound.

rap rap rap rap

It came form the balcony window. He slowly rose to a sitting position, pushed off the cot with an effort, and walked to the window. He paused when he placed his hand on the cord that would pull the curtains back. Gathering all of his courage, he pulled the cord. As soon as he did, he fell back and started to crawl backward. What he saw was what looked like the ruins of a city he guessed to be Bhrams. But what scared him the most was what was outside the window¾ thousands of ghosts that looked like the ones that could be seen in old-fashioned horror movies. Their voices were babbling incomprehensibly for a few moments, then they all joined in a chorus.

"_Why did you leave?_"

"I-I-I...had no choice!" Ryan stammered. "I had to!"

"_There was a choice. You could have stayed and died with us._"

"No way! I didn't want to die!"

"_Come with us, Ryan...we're lonely...please..._"

"NO!!" 

The ghosts started to ram into the window, making small spiderweb cracks where they struck it.

'Shitshitshitshitshit! What the hell do I do?!'

Ryan frantically looked around for a means of escape, and for the first time, he noticed a door at the far end of the room. He sprinted toward it, praying it wouldn't be locked. He tried the doorknob, and as soon as he opened it and dashed through it, he heard the balcony windows shatter. He slammed the door behind him and didn't look back, getting as far as he could from the banging at the other side of the door.

The new room he had entered was dim, but he could see that it was made of steel. It was four-sided, and on the far wall was an Umbrella logo. Ryan walked up to the far wall, leaned against it, and let out a sigh of relief.

He stopped leaning against the wall however, when he felt something warm against his back. He slid his hand in back of him. Bringing it up to his face, he saw it was blood. He wasn't feeling any pain, so he knew it wasn't his own blood. He turned around and looked at the Umbrella logo, than backed up a few paces. The logo was actually bleeding, its colors changing, softening, oozing, dripping down the wall. The banging at the door was getting louder, urgent. The logo was now a giant blood spot on the wall. Ryan looked around for another escape, but he found none. His worst fear came true, when he heard the undeniable scream of several Hunters as if they were all around him. The blood spot on the wall started to move toward him. Ryan couldn't move, afraid of what might happen.

When the spot surrounded him, the Hunters' cries became so loud one might have been right in front of his face. He let out a gasp when a scaly arm grabbed his leg. He knew what it was instantly. He reached for his Colt .45. It felt different, but it was still cold like steel. Pointing it at the Hunter, he found out why it felt different. It was a human arm severed at the elbow.

The hand began to move, and Ryan threw it to the other side of the room. It hit the wall with a 'splunch.'

Ryan didn't understand what was happening thus far, but he didn't take the time to figure out why.

The Hunter's grip began to get more powerful, and then he could swear that the banging would collapse the door any second. The Hunter yanked on his leg with inhuman strength, pulling him through the floor. He didn't even get time to scream.

He was surrounded by red, and could hear Hunters all around him. He could say nothing. He could do nothing. He could feel them clawing and ripping at his body. Then once again, darkness.

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Claire blinked the sleep away from her eyes as she realized that Leon was nuzzling her neck. Feeling safe and warm against him in their spoon position, beneath the blankets, she smiled.

"Ready to get up and face the day?" Claire asked him in hushed tones.

Leon tightened his grip around her and pulled her closer. He bit her earlobe gently. "Not just yet," he said around her skin.

Claire snuggled back into his embrace, his intentions obvious. "Sherry and Ryan are right down the hall," she warned in a low voice.

Leon turned her onto her back and leaned over her. "We'll be quiet," he assured her. "Besides, they're probably sleeping like logs after yesterday."

Claire smiled up at him. "I guess so." She traced the line of his lips with her fingertip. "I must be dreaming," she sighed.

Leon grinned and bent down to kiss her. "Then so am I."

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Ryan awoke and jerked to an upright position. He was sleeping in a bed. It wasn't very comfortable, but that didn't really bother him, considering the dream he had just had. He got out of bed. The room he was in was the size of an average living room but was furnished like a prison cell, with a small cot, a toilet, and a washbowl. There were no bars but a door where bars would be. 

With a heavy sigh, he walked over to the sink. Turning on the cold water, he splashed some on his face.

It felt warm. He looked down at his hands. They were covered with blood. Slowly, reluctant to see what he would find, he raised his eyes and looked into the mirror above the sink. His face was covered with blood. And behind him in the mirror, someone else was in the room. Although the room was well lit, the figure was shrouded in darkness. It held out a hand over which a sword made of flames hovered. Ryan instantly turned around to face him, but something hit him and he went flying. When he hit the floor, he rolled over. He could see his headless body across the room. The figure hovering over it had decapitated him. He wanted to scream, but he could only breathe. His head was jerked into the air by the hair, and he could see clearly who was holding it: Mark.

Mark gave an evil grin.

"Batter up," he sneered.

Ryan felt himself being tossed like a ball, the whoosh of the sword, then darkness.

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Ryan woke up suddenly, jumping out of the bed onto his feet. He stood there until his breathing calmed down. The room he was in was the same place where he had been beheaded in his dream. He slowly walked over to the sink. He turned on the cold water and waited for a few minutes. When he was convinced that it wasn't going to turn to blood, he splashed some on his face. He then let the water run and looked up at the ceiling.

'I wish it would just dim down a little,' he thought.

As if on command, the lights dimmed down a notch.

"Thanks," he breathed to no one in particular.

He looked at himself in the mirror. His face was flushed, but nothing seemed wrong. He leaned in for a closer look. His eyes had changed color. They were now a glowing purple.

"What the hell?!" he exclaimed.

He blinked twice, and they returned to normal again. He blinked twice more, but they didn't change color.

Ryan went back to the bed. For lack of something to do, he started to untie his hair, but stopped when he found his hands shaking. At first he wondered why, but then it occurred to him: he hadn't had a cigarette in two days. He was going through nicotine withdrawal. He cursed under his breath, and reached for his cigarettes. He was surprised to find them there, along with his lighter and switchblade. His guns, though, were missing.

He shook one out, tremblingly put it to his lips and lit it with his lighter. With a long drag, the shaking diminished.

After finishing his cigarette, he knew he had to leave. He went for the door and tried the latch, but it turned only half way. It was locked.

'Damnit! Open!' he thought.

There was a tingling feeling in his hands, then a beep and a click. The door was unlocked.

"Some weird stuff going on here..." he muttered.

Ryan opened the door onto a hallway of the labs. He was about to step out when he heard approaching footsteps. Ryan closed the door, but not all the way. He took out his switchblade, and waited. When the footsteps passed, he chinked the door a couple of inches and through it saw Anna Yamaguchi walking away from him down the hall.

Rage overcame any clear thinking. He slipped out from behind the door and crept quietly up behind her. When he was within a few more steps of her, he dashed forward, clamped his left arm around her shoulder and placed his switchblade to her throat.

"Peekaboo, you f*** you." Ryan said with pure malice.

Ryan imagined stabbing her countless times in the back, leaving her to die slowly in the middle of the hallway; but telling himself he wasn't a cold-blooded killer, he reined in his rage.

"Well..." Anna said in a tone that suggested that nothing was wrong. "Nice to see you too, Ryan."

"Shut up. Take me to my weapons. Now."

Anna complied, and led him down several corridors. She finally stopped at a door.

"If there is anyone behind this door, you will die." Ryan rasped in her ear.

Ryan pressed the open button with his free hand, and entered the room. It was very small, about the size of a janitor's closet. On the table were his weapons and ammo.

"Pick them up. Now. And don't try anything, 'cause I'm faster with a knife than you think."

Anna complied. Just as she went for one of the guns, she turned around, and Ryan couldn't believe what he saw. Anna's hands were erupting with thick jetting streams of water. They hit Ryan with such a force he was knocked to the other side of the hall. Ryan's weapon was no longer in his hands.

He looked up at Anna. She had an emotionless look on her face, and he could she her eyes were a glowing crystalline blue, not their usual green.

"Wh...wh...wh...what the hell are you?!" Ryan breathed.

"I am Seraph."

"What?"

"I am Seraph."

"What the hell is a Seraph?"

"You should know."

"You aren't making any sense!"

"You will understand...in time."

With a suddenly flaring fury, he leaped at her with speed that he didn't know he possessed, and tackled her to the floor. He felt a surge of energy go through his body, then he felt a pulse like electricity running through his hands, and into Anna.

She started to scream, and Ryan held her there for a few seconds, trying to realize what was happening.

'_What the hell are you doing?! Get off of her! She's dying!_' Ryan's mind screamed at him.

Ryan fell over backward, and looked at the young woman across from him. The smell of burnt flesh was apparent in the air, but it wasn't too thick. If Ryan had held her for a longer amount of time, he then knew, the smell would have been worse, along with her condition.

"What...did...I...just...do...?" Ryan stammered as he looked at his own hands with disbelief.

"You...gave an electrical discharge...though your hands..." Anna replied.

"What...am I?"

"You are Seraph..."

"I'm human!"

"Yes, you are still part human, but you are still Seraph."

Anna stood up. On her own, a little shakily, but she managed to get her balance back into check.

"Come with me and I'll explain," she said.

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Sherry got up out of bed and headed for the bathroom. She stopped at the door and read the note in Ryan's writing. She noted that the last part of the letter was written in Hiragana, spelling out, 'See you later.' 

Sighing to herself, she crumpled up the note, and tossed it aside. She could worry about that later. For now, she needed a shower.

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Anna guided Ryan into a room that had several chairs and a slide projector mounted on a table near the back of the room. Anna went to the front and pulled down a projection screen. She then turned on the projector.

"It started when Dr. Vickers was hired by Umbrella for work on a group of new viruses that would let the subject still think for itself, so it could have inhuman abilities but not be turned into a monster¾ and still be kept under control." She pressed the 'next' button on the projector.

The new slide showed the new viruses' names, and their elements.

AF= Fire

AW= Water

AE²= Electricity

AE= Earth

AA= Wind

"It took several years, but when he had finally completed his research, he realized that using one of these new viruses, he could complete his dream of purifying the human race."

Ryan wanted to ask a question, but he decided to wait until she was finished.

The next slide showed a baby boy being held.

"Around this time, Dr. Vickers made an artificial human infused with the AF-virus. This being would grow at an incredible rate¾ he reached the human age of fourteen in two months¾ but the growth rate stopped when he reached the human age of fifteen. This being would later be known as 'Mark'."

Ryan once again withheld his questions.

The next slide showed Anna's personal file.

"Over the course of one year, my father, who worked for Umbrella, got wind of an experiment that needed children of nineteen or younger who had two of the rarest blood types in the world, O negative, and OB negative. I heard of this, and wondered what would happen to me if I accepted, so I contacted Umbrella and told them who I was. My father was against it, but Umbrella said that unless they complied, all of us would be killed. He was forced to accept, and so I was sent here to Carlton where I have been for the past year."

The next slide showed a few documents that Ryan was unable to read.

"Umbrella was angry with Dr. Vickers for not handing over the research that he promised them. Dr. Vickers replied by saying, 'These children are the way to the future. They are a more highly evolved human form. They must be used to purify the planet of all unworthy humans. If you try to stop the judgement of God, then you shall be punished.' So Umbrella sent in a strike force. They were under orders to kill everyone in the city, as Umbrella believed that they were all Seraphs, which they were not. Mark and I just so happened to be in the labs at this time. When the strike force came into the lab, Dr. Vickers ordered us to kill them. I took down a few, but Mark got most of them. That was a few days ago. Now, let me explain to you how this all works."

Anna turned off the projector.

"A Seraph draws its abilities from both the elements and the body. Water, Fire, and Electricity are mainly from the body. Wind and Earth are mainly from the elements. When using your abilities, you place yourself in danger. For instance, if you were to use Electricity for too long, your brain would implode from the overwhelming power of electricity. Using Water too much would cause instant dehydration and death; using Fire too much would make you spontaneously combust into flames; using Earth too much would render you so weak; that the atmosphere could crush you even if you were on the ground. Finally, Wind would cause the entire body to just shut down, if used too much.

"However, there are good effects as well. Even though all natural traits such as intelligence, physical endurance, physical strength, concentration, and speed go up, depending on which element you have, you get a bigger boost in that certain category, plus a resistance to that element you chose. For instance, Fire gives more physical strength and you can walk though fire as if it were nothing. 

"Water gives enhanced concentration, and also lets you stay under water for hours without having to take a breath. It also gives heightened response for white blood cells, a higher count of them; and sometimes minor wounds will close up without the help of white blood cells¾ in short, enhanced healing.

"Electricity gives a boost to speed, and basically makes you a human conductor of electricity, which you can use to your own ends.

"Earth gives a boost to physical endurance, and allows you to walk over any earth-like terrain.

"Wind gives a boost to intelligence, and may allow you to float in mid air, though it hasn't been tested yet."

"I have some questions," Ryan said.

"Shoot."

"First, with these powers, can you cause natural disasters?"

"It hasn't been proven yet," she said, "but it is believed that you can. However, I would think, it would take years to develop that kind of control over the element you are using, in your case, electricity."

"Your parents are still alive, right?"

"Yep. I had no choice but to lie, otherwise you wouldn't have come here. They're living in L.A."

"What's with all the zombies?" 

"Dr. Vickers found out that his lab assistants were planning to turn him over to Umbrella, so he released the T-virus and various B.O.W's to the upper levels. He managed to confine it to the labs only, thank God."

"Can anyone become a Seraph?"

"No. You see, he wants to get as many seraphs as he can, but if you don't have O negative or OB negative blood types, then the viruses kill you. Its not known why."

"Why do you follow Dr. Vickers? He sounds like a madman!"

"He does have a point. Do you know what we've done to this ball of spinning dirt? Countless things to screw it up. And what have we given back? Nothing."

"Well...we recycle! We have forest preserves! We...have zoos that take in endangered animals and nurse them back to health! We...uh...damn..."

"That isn't enough."

At that moment, the words of some character that he had seen in the movies came back to him

'Mankind is not a mammal. Mammals coexist with their environment, and help it to survive. Humans however, simply move to one area, exhaust its resources, then move on. There's a name for that, you know. A virus. That is what mankind is. A virus.'

"A virus," Anna said, snapping Ryan out of his thoughts. "That's what mankind is."

Ryan thought all this over.

'Jesus...I feel like I'm in some kind of video game...an RPG to be exact...' Ryan thought.

"Well?" Anna said.

"I..."

"You have to face the fact that you have been chosen to lead mankind into a new future, Ryan."

"I...I...guess...you do make a point..."

"Great! Perfect! That brings the number of Seraphs in the world to eight!"

"Holy shit! We're outnumbered one-billion-to-one?!"

"Yes. But not for long."

An idea popped into Ryan's head.

"Hey Anna, could you give me a map of this place? You know, so I can find my way around?"

"Sure."

Anna went digging though a desk drawer, and came out with a paper map.

Ryan couldn't help but smile.

'Unlike these bastards, I haven't lost my sense of humanity. I'm goin' rouge!' Ryan thought.

First and foremost, as you can see, Ryan is addicted to tobacco. That is _NOT _a good habit to take up. For those who think I was glorifying smoking, you are wrong. I placed it in here to help say that its bad, hence Ryan's shaking hands. He wouldn't have that if he wouldn't be smoking, now would he? (Of course, there are many other side effects, most, if not all, leading eventually to death.)

The character interludes of Chris, Leon and Claire were written by Mayumi_H and used with permission. 

For the record, Jared Vickers has no relation to Brad Vickers in any way, shape, or form.

_Omae o Koroso (O-may-o-ko-ro-so)/I'm going to kill you._

Draft: 3/16/01

Final: 4/?/00


	7. Resident Evil: The Seraphs, Tyrant Attac...

Resident Evil

Resident Evil

The Seraphs

By: Xenogears

Chapter six

In no way do I own the characters of Capcom's legacy, Resident Evil. They are used for non-profit purposes, only for entertainment.

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Sherry walked out of the shower, fully clothed, expecting to see Ryan sitting there on the bed reading a book or something. She was surprised when she didn't find a trace of him anywhere in the room. Ryan never went anywhere without letting her or someone else know. If he had come back, he would have knocked on the bathroom door to let her know. 

The clock read 1:09PM. It seemed to her that he had been gone for about forty-five minutes, but she remembered that she had awakened for a few seconds at about eleven to find Ryan gone. So that was two hours. She shook her head in dismay and hurried out the door to look for the others.

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Mark sat in a chair, using the table next to him as a leg rest. He was in the communications room, posted there by Vickers because he was expecting another attack from Umbrella. Vickers wanted him to intercept Umbrella's radio traffic to get a warning ahead of time. 

He was quite bored. Only when he was bored like this did he ever resort to playing a video game. 

"Man," he said under his breath. "If you want to get all 250, then you have to cut out a chunk of your personal life, and replace it with this game."

He almost fell out of his chair a few moments later when he heard radio traffic buzz over his radio wave interceptor.

  
"This...ha...asking...sion to drop...nts over...ton...ver..."

Mark turned off his game, and ran over to the console and tapped at the keys. A few moments later, the transmission was clear.

"Repeat: this is chopper 'Alpha', requesting permission to drop contents over Carlton, over."

"Chopper Alpha, this is base, permission granted, over."

"Copy, base. Dropping T-103's..."

Mark cringed instinctively at the mention of T-103. Where did he hear that term before?

Suddenly, it hit him like a brick. He ran from the room, looking for Dr. Vickers.

Though he may have been a Seraph, his abilities wouldn't be as effective against the monstrosities Umbrella was sending against them.

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"Has he come back yet?" Sherry asked as she walked into the hotel lobby.

"Who?" Leon asked.

"Ryan."

  
"I haven't seen him all morning. Why?" Claire said.

"Because I haven't seen him either. He said he was going to Anna's house, but he hasn't come back for...two hours."

"What?" Leon was incredulous. Everyone was rising from their seats.

"He hasn't been back for two hours."

"Oh man...did anything get to him?" Leon said.

"Don't talk like that!" Sherry snapped. "He's okay! I know it! He's just lost or something..."

"Well, lost or not," Chris said, "we better start looking for him."

"All right, let's¾" 

Claire was interrupted by a crashing sound coming from off in the distance. The whole room quaked.

"If whatever that was had enough force to shake this room," Chris said, "then it had to have hit the hotel."

Chris went outside and looked at the structure for a moment. 

"There's a big hole in the ceiling of a room on the second floor," he called back. "I think it's the one farthest to the left at the end of the hall."

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Sherry said. "Let's get going!"

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The elevator ride grated on their nerves. The car rose far too slowly, and they wanted to get this over and done with. 

The elevator suddenly stopped. When the doors opened, they stepped out with weapons drawn¾Chris, his Glock 17;, Claire her M93R; Leon his VP70; and Sherry her .380.

They proceeded down the hall, and Chris opened the door farthest to the left.

"Oh shit."

There was indeed a hole in the ceiling. But that wasn't the thing that caught their attention. What did was the red tube that impaled the bed. It was the size of two men, and read 'T-103' on the front.

Leon gasped.

"Get back!" he yelled.

"Why?" Chris asked.

"The last time I saw one of these things, one of those Tyrant monsters came out of it!" 

As they watched, a hissing sound emitted form the tube and steam shot from cracks in it. A panel in the side of the tube fell to the floor, and what they saw was a pale-skinned giant figure dressed in a black trench coat. The figure stirred, and then its eyes snapped opened. A T-103.

Leon didn't need to repeat himself. Everyone turned and ran for the staircase, not wanting to wait for the elevator. When they were halfway down the hallway, the Tyrant could be seen emerging from the room. Chris stopped and fired his Glock 17.

Pow! Pow! Pow! Pow! Pow!

The hail of bullets was no obstacle to the Tyrant. Without a flinch, it continued advancing, picking up speed.

Claire called back to Chris to stop. He cursed at his own stupidity. He should have known that 9mm rounds would have no effect.

The Tyrant was gaining on Chris. He dived into the stairwell after the others without looking back. The Tyrant barreled through the doorframe as if it were wax paper, hurtled across the top stairs, ricocheted off the wall leaving a large dent, and continued bounding down the passage after Chris. 

Chris reached the first floor and flung open the door, not bothering to close it behind him, because he knew it wouldn't do any good. They kept running at top speed for the exit.When they got outside, they stopped and looked around frantically in every direction.

"Where to, Chris?" Sherry asked, trying to regain her breath.

Chris was about to respond, when one of the walls collapsed, and the Tyrant was right behind it. 

Chris looked up to see a gas station across the street. He leapt from the curb and ran for it. He noticed that he didn't mind the biting cold--adrenaline probably.

Though the snow slowed them down, they still had the lead when they reached the front door of the gas station. It was locked shut.

"Chris!" Leon yelled. "You led us into a trap!"

Chris looked around for something to use, when his eyes came across a rusty barrel a few feet away. It smelled strongly of gasoline. He couldn't predict the behavior of one of Umbrella's greatest creations, but he would take a chance.

There was a little greasy residue in the bottom of the barrel. He knew it was gasoline. He heaved it on its side and kicked it so it went rolling down the incline that led to the street, clattering toward the Tyrant.

'Come on...' he thought.

The barrel rolled to a stop at the monster's feet. Chris was about to curse, but then he saw the Tyrant start to pick it up. He could barely contain his glee.

Taking aim, he waited until the tyrant had hefted the barrel just above its head, then he pulled the trigger on his Glock 17.

_BOOOOOMMMMMMM!!!_

_ _

_ _

The explosion was deafening. Charred parts of the Tyrant were raining down over the lot. 

"Yeeeesssss! Who da man?! Who da man?!" Chris shouted.

This moment of childishness defused their tension, and they all started to laugh.

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Ryan sat on the bed of his cell/room. He was beginning to get sick of this room. 'Hell,' Ryan thought. 'I'm gettin' sick of this whole town.'

He looked over the map that Anna had given him. He was a little sad that he would have to betray them, but they seemed bent on killing everyone who didn't have O Negative or OB Negative blood type. Just because of something about the 'Will of God.' These people belonged in an insane asylum. To take his mind off it, he started to hum Limp Bizkit's 'Rollin, Air Raid Vehicle.'

Using a red marker, he traced his route on the map. He would take the path that he had been taking before to pick up his weapons, then keep going down the hall. At the next T section, he would take a right, and follow it as it branched off to the left and then right again. Then he would take a left at the next intersection, and follow that path until he reached a door at the end of the hallway. That would lead to a passage that would take him to Anna's basement.

Since there were only three other people in the building, he would only have to worry about security cameras. Strangely but lucky for Ryan, they hadn't installed any in his cell/room, so he could work without being found out.

He reviewed his plan, once, twice, three times, then put it to rest. He stuffed the map under the mattress, and left his cell to speak to Dr. Vickers. 

Little did he know, he had left a corner of the map just visible from under the mattress.

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Anna was knocking at Ryan's door to find some way to apologize to him for all the treachery and deception0 that he had endured because of her.  
  


knock, knock, knock.

The door was almost instantly opened by Ryan, who looked annoyed.

"Ummmm..." She started to say. "I'm...I'm really sorry about all that's happened...It was to lure you here, and I wasn't just following orders. I actually helped make the plan to bring you here..."

Ryan said nothing, his expression unchanged.

"Once again, I'm really, really sorry."

The set of Ryan's features didn't change, but he backed away from the doorway to let Anna in.

"Is there some way I can repay you?"

Ryan then suddenly grabbed her around the waist, and pulled him closer to him, an action that surprised Anna.

"I don't know," Ryan said in an alluring tone. "What do you think?"

Anna started to close the gap between their faces. Why was she doing this?

"I have a pretty good idea how."

Anna moved in close enough to hear his breathing, and feel it on her neck.

_Pow!_

It wasn't until the sound cleared that Anna felt the pain in her abdomen.

Even through her red shirt, she could see her own blood gushing out in thick streams.

She looked at Ryan whose face was emotionless, and held a still smoking Walther PPK/S in his right hand.

She was losing strength fast. She fell to the floor. She could feel blood rising in her throat, and coughed it out to splash onto the floor.

She looked up at Ryan.

"Why...?" She managed to say her voice barely above a whisper.

"Just because," Ryan calmly answered.

He pointed his gun at her face and once again pulled the trigger.

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Anna bolted up from her sleeping position on the table. She had rested her head on her arms for a while, just for a quick nap, as she had trouble finding sleep lately. She hadn't expected to fall asleep. 

She was in the break room of the labs, slumped in a hard plastic bucket chair at one of the anonymous, slippery-topped tables. Soda and sandwich vending machines lined one side of the room, and a water fountain and small sink occupied one corner.

She glanced at the clock on the opposite wall. She had been sleeping for only thirty minutes. She realized that lunch would have to be ready in about twenty minutes.

Grumbling sleepily, she contemplated the dream she just had.

Did she have feelings for Ryan? Yes, he was attractive, but she just thought of him as a friend at best.

Wait. Friend? Since when was he her friend?

'Ugh...I'll go crazy thinking like this,' she thought. 'I have to just keep going. Thank God my Seraph abilities lets me survive with sleep deprivation.' 

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Anna arrived at Ryan's door to tell him that lunch was ready.

knock, knock, knock

When there was no answer, she tried the latch. It opened without a sound. The room was deserted. She looked around, and caught the sight of something hanging out under his mattress.

'I thought that boys hid their 'magazines' better than this...' Anna thought.

She walked over to the bed, pulled on the paper that was sticking out. As she unfolded it her eyes widened as she realized what she was holding. It was a diagram of the labs with an escape route mapped out. She knew exactly where the escape route was; she used it all the time to get to the labs. 

'Should I stop him?' Anna thought.

She stood at Ryan's bedside for a few long moments. She had the obligation to turn him in to Dr. Vickers. But if she did that, he would most likely be killed. (Dr. Vickers only liked _complete_ loyalty.) She had grown to like Ryan in this short time, and in spite of all that was going on, she felt like making this 'friendship' last. But then again, she had to follow her duty to the human race, didn't she?

Finally, she carefully folded up the map, and placing it back under the mattress so it didn't show, left the room quietly.

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Ryan walked into the office. Dr. Vickers was sitting at the far end of the room at a highly polished oak desk that reflected his upside-down ghosted image in it's surface, beside the keyboard and the largest monitor Ryan had ever seen. Behind him a marker board was filled with equations that Ryan didn't understand. 

Dr. Vickers looked up from his work and smiled.

"Well, hello, Ryan."

"Dr. Vickers," Ryan nodded.

"Why did you come to see me?"

"Ummmmm..." 

Ryan racked his brain for answers. He had rehearsed what he would ask on his way over, and now he had suddenly forgotten.

"Well...I just came to tell you that...I'm still kind of overwhelmed with this whole thing..."

"Ah! Don't worry Ryan," Vickers said. "So were Mark and Anna. But they eventually grew in to it, and their Seraph abilities progressed, as will yours."

Ryan cringed. He couldn't shake the fact that he wasn't entirely human anymore, and he didn't want to accept it. But he had no other choice but to accept it, otherwise he would be denying his very being. He still held onto the hope that there was some sort of antidote that could reverse the process he had gone though. And what about Mark and Anna?

"I was wondering if there was something that might revert me to being human?" Ryan said. "I mean, so I can avoid it in the future?"

Vickers pondered it for a few seconds.

"There might...but for so drastic a change, it would take a long time to develop something like a vaccine, so you don't have much to worry about."

Ryan was glad that this man seemed warped or even insane, even if the man was a genius. He wouldn't have to use as much caution as if he were normal. 

"Well, then," Ryan said as he turned for the door. "Later."

Vickers watched Ryan leave, and smiled.

'Those two...Ryan and Anna have so much potential together...Mark has already shown himself more useful than I first considered him,' Vickers thought. 'I wonder what will become of those two? I think that I already see a bit of contention between them...'

Vickers's slight frown relaxed into the usual tight smile. As he turned back to his work, there came a frantic knocking at the door.

"Come in."

Mark practically came barreling through the door, breathing heavily.

"What's wrong, Mark?" Vickers asked.

"It's...Umbrella...They're...sending in...T-103s..."

Vickers jumped out of his seat.

"So...They want to test the will of God, eh? Go to the armory and get some good weapons like, oh I don't know, a Barret M82?" Vickers finished the last part of his last sentence with a sinister smile. 

"Well," Mark ventured with the same smile. "I've never used guns before, but I'm a quick learner, right?"

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Ryan closed his cell's door behind him and heaved a sigh of relief. On his visit to the doctor, he had felt that his mind was being read, or that he was being watched. Though he didn't think much of the first, he was pretty sure that there was a surveillance on him. 'Seraph powers perhaps?' he thought.

When Mark had come running past him down the hall, Ryan thought that he was coming straight for him. He was relieved when he saw Mark head straight into Vickers' office.

He knelt at the edge of his bed, and took the map. Stuffing it into his pocket as far as it could go, he turned for the door. 

In the hallway, he thrust his hand into his pants pocket where his switchblade was hidden. When he arrived at the room where they were keeping his weapons, he threw open the door, and quickly gathered his weapons and ammo, stuffing his other pockets with the rounds. He was dismayed to find his Colt .45 missing.

'Huh...take the most powerful one, and leave the weakest ones for leftovers.'

He placed his weapons away in their respective holsters: his Beretta 92 in his side holster, and his Walther PPK/S in his ankle holster.

He left to continue cautiously down the hall, looking around for cameras at each corner. He spotted one and walked casually by, but picked up his pace when he thought he was well out of range.

It didn't take him long to reach the final hallway, and just beyond that, the door that would lead out to Anna's house.

'All right...just get through this door, and I'm free...no more of this 'Will of God' crap...'

Ryan placed his hand on the latch.

Click.

And froze. He felt cold metal press against his head, and instantly knew what it was. He slowly placed his hands on the top of his head.

"I'm kinda taking a liking to this Colt .45 of yours," he heard Anna say.

"Anna...It's not what it looks like..."

"Bull. It's exactly what it looks like," Anna said. "You were going to escape to the outside world using a passage that would lead to my house and then go back to your friends and tell them of what happened here."

"Anna, please..."

"Stop playing games with me, Ryan. I'm not really in the mood for this. It's best that you stop beating around the bush and admit to your crimes. Doing so would make Dr. Vickers think twice about killing you, and I would even put in a word for you."

"I was just..." Ryan searched for the words to say. When he found none, he wondered if he should admit to what he was doing. 'Hey, if she's telling the truth, I might get another chance to escape.'

"Fine. You got me. I was trying to escape. Happy now?"

"Yes, actually."

Anna started to back away.

"Don't try anything. I have a very itchy trigger finger when something moves too suddenly."

Ryan slowly turned around.

"Good. Now let's go." Anna reached for the door latch. It opened with a slight creak.

Ryan was confused.

"What the...? Don't you want to turn me over?"

"I betrayed your trust once before," Anna replied, "but not again. If you need to get out of here, I'm with you. Besides, I was getting tired of this place. I need a little sunshine."

Ryan, still hesitant and wondering, started following her though the long, dimly lit, tunnel that looked from here like it was a mile long.

"Come on," she said. "We don't have much time before they notice that we're missing."

Author's note: I must thank my proofreader F. Buckley, my copy editor Mayumi_H, and my beta readers, Catalina, Red Kat 9, and Jack The Ripper. You guys are doing a great job so far, and I really appreciate it! 

Just in case you don't know, the Barret M82 is one of the, if not the, most powerful nonexplosive weapons in the world. First employed by the U.S. Army during Operation Desert Storm, the special .50 caliber bullet it fires can rip through a 600-pound safe, leave an exit hole, and still hit a target behind it with good accuracy. 

For the record, Jared Vickers is in NO WAY related to Brad Vickers of Resident Evil 1 and 3. Thank you.

_Ja ne!_

Draft: 3/23/01

Final: 4/?/01

_ _


	8. Resident Evil: The Seraphs, The Escape/P...

Resident Evil

Resident Evil

The Seraphs

By: Xenogears

Chapter seven

In no way do I own the characters of Capcom's legacy, Resident Evil. They are used for non-profit purposes, only for entertainment.

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Mark ran down the halls toward Anna's room. He needed to tell her what was happening. He didn't want to get Ryan involved ¾ Ryan was a 'newbie', and T-103s could be very deadly. 

He came to an abrupt stop at Anna's door and opened it, not even taking into account that he was entering a female's room.

"Anna! We've got¾ "

He looked around the room. It showed no signs of human occupation at all.

"Anna?" Mark repeated. No response.

He walked in, and looked around again. For the first time, he saw a note on her bed. He picked it up and read it. It was scribbled in a quick cursive, as if she was in a hurry.

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_Mark,_

_ _

_ _

_If you are reading this note, then I am gone with Ryan to stop Dr. Vickers. When I found out that Ryan was trying to escape, I realized that Dr. Vickers was insane. He needs help, and he brainwashed us into thinking that what we were doing was right. I hope that you can realize before it's too late, because I don't want to hurt you. Time is short. I must intercept Ryan __¾__ he's just about to leave._**_ _**

**_ _**

_ _

_ _

**Anna**

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Mark felt that his veins would burst from anger. The only thing that was going through his mind was 'traitor.' How could she do this? The Seraphs had an obligation to the purification of mankind!

He crumpled the note in his hand, and made it burst into flames. He dropped the ashes to the floor and stormed out.

'You will _die,_ Ryan Davidson...whether it is to be slow and painful or quick and painless is still under consideration, but you will die, I can promise you that...'

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_Meanwhile..._

Ryan and Anna were walking down the tunnel. They could see the ladder at the end of the tunnel, standing in the gloomy light that leaked from around the manhole cover in the ceiling above it.

They hadn't spoken a word since entering the tunnel.

Then Ryan broke the silence.

"Anna. Question."

"Yes?"

"If you know what you're doing is wrong, why don't you just kill Vickers?"

"There's a mind block in the virus that prevents us from doing him any harm."

There was another moment of silence, then Anna turned to Ryan.

"You smell a little bit like smoke. Don't you?"

"Yeah, so what?"

"Jeez, do I need to read you the Surgeon General's warning?"

"No. I know the label by heart."

"Then why?"

Ryan paused.

"I made some mistakes a while back. Some very stupid mistakes."

Anna told herself that she would get nothing else out of him on that subject.

"Um...Why do you wear that bandanna?"

Ryan looked at her as if she had asked him to strip in front of her.

"What do you mean?"

"Exactly that: why do you wear that bandanna?"

"I ain't tellin'."

'Desperate times call for desperate measures...' Anna thought.

Anna performed her 'Super Duper Heart Melting Face Technique,' and switched to a child's pleading voice.

"Please?"

"No."

"Pretty please?"

"No."

"Pretty please with sugar on top?"

"No."

"Oh come on, Ryan!"

She stopped abruptly. Ryan turned to look at her face. He kept his expression firm, but he gave in.

"Fine."

"Yes!"

Ryan pulled off his bandanna. The scar showed vividly in the gloomy light. Anna cringed.

"Ouch...how did you get that?"

"Attacked by a hunter."

"Whoa...You were so insecure about _that_?"

Ryan's voice turned stern.

"It's just something I wish to forget."

"A moment of weakness?"

"Did I ask you?"

Anna backed off and decided not to inquire any further.

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Ryan climbed the short ladder to work the latch on the manhole cover. When it clicked, he leaned into it, grunting, and it lifted enough for them to look through. They gazed into what looked like a basement with a concrete floor, strewn with a few cartons and crates, the room dimly lit from an uncertain light source. Anna took the lead, hoisting herself quickly through the floor, Ryan close behind. With a glance at the boxes, they crossed the basement to a set of stairs leading upward.

"Let's not forget to get some winter gear before we leave here," she said.

They went carefully up the stairs, and at the top they instantly felt a chill. They were in the living room. Sounds of the outside came from the dining room.

'An open window?' Ryan thought.

He corrected himself when he saw what caused the draft. There was a gaping hole in the corner of the ceiling that went all the way through the roof. The dining room table had been split in two. Wedged between the pieces was a huge red metal cylinder the size of a garbage drum that had the white words "T-103" and the red-striped Umbrella logo on its side.

Ryan was puzzled, but Anna recognized the label.

Before they could make a move, a hissing sound came from the cylinder as steam shot from long cracks in the surface. A panel in the side of the cylinder fell to the floor, and what they saw was a pale-skinned giant figure dressed in a black trench coat. The figure's eyes snapped open. 

Without thinking, they both drew their weapons and fired simultaneously, all the while backing up. Anna was aiming for the head, and Ryan for the kneecaps. 

The volley of fire didn't seem to deter the T-103. 

'Damnit! Die!' Ryan's mind screamed. In the aftermath of the first shots, he could hear a creaking noise from behind them. The wall was moving to close them in.

The Tyrant rushed toward them, its fist poised to strike. They both dodged to the side, narrowly escaping the fist as it smashed into the wall where they had been.

Ryan and Anna reloaded and fired again. The Tyrant loomed between them. It turned its face toward Anna.

Ryan leveled both his firearms at the hulk, and fired at the back of the its kneecaps. 

On a lucky shot, Anna punctured its right eye. It fell to one knee. Ryan thought he should run for the door, but Anna stopped him.

"We need to kill it or it will come after us until it's been neutralized!"

Ryan looked at his hands. It was time to employ his seraph powers.

'But how?' he thought.

Anna acted quickly, and shot out the dining room light on the ceiling. Ryan wondered momentarily why she would do that, but it quickly occurred to him¾ she was making it easier for him to use his abilities. 

Anna, who seemed to be reading his mind, called out, "Reach out with your mind and 'search' for the electricity. Then 'order' it to conduct and attack the T-103!"

Anna thrust her fist forward and a jet of water shot out, hitting the T-103 squarely in the face. The force was not enough to knock it over, but her plan was to help Ryan's power with the electricity to be more effective.

Ryan closed his eyes and tried to pull all his mental power together. For the first time, he noticed that he could sense things that he couldn't normally sense before, but he knew he could pay no attention to them now. He was feeling out for one thing, and one thing only.

'Electricity,' he thought.

"Hurry up!" he heard Anna say. "It's getting up!"

Ryan's concentration was slipping, when he felt a sensation all around him. Focusing on the wires behind the walls, he found a source of electricity. Then, he directed all of it to the blasted light fixture that hung above the Tyrant, and he ordered it to strike.

He opened his eyes and found the Tyrant only ten feet away from him, and bolts of electricity from the ceiling were wrapping the figure in a glowing, spitting halo of high-power current. 

The water Anna had called up multiplied the effect, as she had planned. But she knew that Ryan, who had never before drawn on so much power, would be feeling a sudden headache. 

The lights in the house flickered.

The Tyrant was shaking violently, and holding its head as if in pain.

Anna saw Ryan gripping his head in pain, but she could tell that his concentration still held.

'Just a few more seconds...' she silently urged him. 'Come on, Ryan!'

She knew that if he continued, his brain could explode, but if he stopped, the Tyrant would simply get up and kill them. 

Just then there was a dull explosion and a splattering noise, and the T-103 fell to the floor in a lifeless heap.

Ryan broke his concentration, almost falling to the floor, but Anna caught his arm.

"Nicely done, Ryan," Anna said gratefully.

Ryan was busy regaining his balance on his own. He shook off her grip.

"I'm fine," he said coldly.

Without a word he crossed the dining room, heading for the front door. As he reached it, the door opened for him on the other side.

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Everyone had heard the gunshots coming from Anna's house. There was no question about it: Someone was alive in there.

'Probably not for long if we don't get there fast,' Leon thought.

He saw the house lights flicker from the distance.

'What the hell is going on in there?'

When they reached the house, they heard a faint 'thud' from inside.

Leon went for the door and stopped, listening to the voices inside. There was a female voice that he didn't recognize, but he clearly heard Ryan's voice from behind the door.

He yanked open the door to find a surprised Ryan looking at him. Was that Anna, behind him?

He felt Sherry pushing in front of him, and she reached out to embrace Ryan.

"Thank God you're okay..." Sherry said. "Couldn't you have come back sooner?"

Leon noticed that Ryan's face darkened, and Anna suddenly found something very interesting about her shoes.

"No...I couldn't have. Sorry I worried you."

Leon looked at the dining room and what was left of the Tyrant sprawled out on the floor.

"What happened here?" he asked.

"A dead Tyrant," Ryan responded. "Nothing else." 

Leon wanted to probe for more answers, but Claire interrupted.

"Come on," she urged. "We have another lab to destroy."

Sherry let go of her grip on Ryan, who was bent over digging through the front closet for something warmer for him and Anna to wear. When he rose to walk out the door, she went with him, and Anna followed.

When they reached the hotel lobby, Ryan introduced everyone to Anna, and told them about the map he had found.

"As we thought before," Claire said, "it has only two floors."

"Where did you get this, Ryan?" Leon asked.

"I...uhh...found it the last time we went to the labs, I just forgot to show it to you guys." Ryan wished they would drop the subject.

"Are you sure?" Sherry asked. "I was with you the whole time, and I didn't see you pick up a map."

"I picked it up when we were in the file room. You weren't looking...my way. Can we go now? We have a job to finish."

"Let's just get some rest first," Chris said. "We need to be fresh in the morning." 

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As they went on their way to their rooms, Ryan stopped Anna at the door and pulled her aside.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Are you sure you want to come?"

"O-of course. Why not?"

"Because of your former allegiance to Doctor Vickers."

Anna's expression turned downcast.

"No. I'm not sure I can go through with this. But I want to. He has to be stopped. And...I want to save Mark."

Ryan paused to look for the right words. When he didn't find any, he said it as straightforward as he could.

"No offense, but I think that it may already be too late for him."

Ryan was expecting, "No you're wrong" or "He'll come to realize," but she simply looked at the floor. She had no comeback.

Ryan started to reach a hand out to her, but stopped. Shaking his head, he placed any ill feelings for her aside, and reached for her shoulder. She looked at him with tear-stained eyes.

"It'll be okay..." he murmured to comfort her.

She just stared at him. After all his coldness, this sudden show of affection took her by surprise. For a second, he thought that Anna would hug him and start breaking down, but only a few tears flowed down her face. Just the way that Ryan knew her: independent and strong willed.

"Yeah..." she muttered implacably.

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Sherry had been watching Ryan and Anna talking. Anna had looked like she would break down at any second, but surprisingly, she remained steadfast and barely cried. At what, Sherry had no idea.

She leaned over to Claire and whispered.

"Something's going on here between those two. I don't like her."

Claire grinned. "Jealous?"

Sherry went on the defensive. "W...wha?! No, no! Not like that! He's like a brother to me. Nothing more!"

Claire's grin widened, if such a thing were possible. "Sure...whatever you say..."

Sherry was fuming on the inside, but she controlled herself. This wasn't a time to act like children. They were going to an Umbrella lab to destroy it. Whether it would be their last time or not, no one could know.

'We're goin' to survive this one...and all the labs afterwards if need be.' Sherry thought.

But she still couldn't shake the feeling that something bad¾ something out of everyone's league¾ could be around the corner.

My thanks go to:

Mayumi_H/Copyeditor

F. Buckley/Proofreader

Red Kat 9/Beta Reader

Catalina/Beta Reader

Draft: 3/27/01

Final: 5/20/01


	9. Resident Evil: The Seraphs, Endgame: Cla...

Resident Evil

Resident Evil

The Seraphs

By: Xenogears

Chapter eight

In no way do I own the characters of Capcom's legacy, Resident Evil. They are used for non-profit purposes, only for entertainment.

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"That's all the note said."

Mark let the effects of Dr. Vickers's already existing rage linger in the air.

SLAM!

Dr. Vickers's fist went straight into his desk, so hard, that Mark thought his fist might be broken.

Vickers's whole body trembled with rage.

"Find her!" Vickers bellowed. "_I want her back at all costs_!"

Mark looked visibly unaffected by his outburst.

"Don't worry," Mark said. "They will come to us." 

Vickers's voice dropped to a raspy whisper. "Davidson...I gave him a chance at something wonderful, and he throws it away..." he said. "Kill him...I want his head on a silver platter!"

Mark grinned. Just what he hoped Vickers would say.

"I'll get to it right away."

"Mark. While you are handling them, I will leave this place. There is nothing more to do here. Meet me at the other laboratory. Do it quickly, because you may get caught in the self-destruct."

"Don't worry. I know." 

Mark walked out of the office. Though he had already destroyed the two Tyrants that had managed to find their way to the labs, he was still up to killing a traitor. Two, if it came down to it.

Mark watched the swirling flame in his hand. He then mentally shaped it into a Scottish Claymore.

"Batter up..." he said to himself.

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Anna couldn't sleep. Too much was on her mind. She turned on the light on her nightstand, and got up.

'Man...' she thought. 'I still don't know if I can do this...'

She shook her head to dismiss the thought.

"No..." she said aloud. "No...I have to...there's no other choice..."

'_Actually, there is..._' came a voice in the back of her mind.

'Mark...?' Anna thought, a surprised look on her face.

It was believed that telepathy could only be used between Seraphs that shared some sort of bond. From friendship to love. She had been friends with Mark before she turned traitor. Did he still think of her remotely as a friend?

The voice must have either seen the look, or expected it, because he gave a chuckle.

'_That's right, Ms. Yamaguchi!' _Mark's thoughts felt cold, icy, full of sarcasm.

'Stop it, Mark! You should know that what Vickers is doing is wrong!'

'_No. You're wrong. What he is doing is divine. Something like this should have happened years ago. He's just bringing the human race up-to-date, and dispatching all those who are unworthy to even be under the holy eyes of God!'_

'Listen to yourself, Mark! You're insane! He's brainwashed you!'

'_No! You listen! He's doing the right thing!_' Mark thought/shouted. '_The man gave me the gift of life, and the power to be one of the chosen ones! You can't ask for a much greater gift! He gave you the power too, and look at you now! You're betraying him all because you have a case of puppy love for that Ryan Davidson! He's turned you against us!'_

'Don't you even go there!' Anna thought in an angry attempt to silence him. 

'_Go where? Oh! Mean to tell you that you're betraying the right cause all because of a few misguided emotions?'_

'Shut up!'

'_Hey. This is America. Free speech and all that.'_

'Wrong. This is my mind! You have no right to even be here!'

'_Last time I checked the Constitution it said nothing against reading minds, or using telepathy,' _Mark retorted in thought.

Anna was boiling with rage. She was used to telepathy to read others' minds. Having someone else use telepathy to read her mind without her consent wasn't a thing she particularly liked. For that reason she refused to use it unless she had to or with the consent of the other person.

'Cut the remarks, Mark!'

'_Hey! It rhymes!'_

'Shut up, damn it!' Anna thought at Mark. 'I don't need any of your commentary at this time, nor do I need your ignorance and blindness to the truth!'

Suddenly, there was a flash of pain through her mind. Then another one though her whole body. She cried out in pain and fell to the floor.

'_Wrong, Anna. You need all the advice you can get from me. This is the only thing I can do to a Seraph in this kind of situation, but if I use it constantly, it may cripple you, or even kill you._' Mark's thoughts had turned suddenly dark and pernicious.

'Get out of my mind!'

Anna tried to shut him out, but his mental abilities were much more developed than hers.

'_Such a pity. You haven't developed your mental abilities that much?'_

"Go away!" Anna cried out.

'_Fine,' _That was the last thought that Anna received before Mark severed the mental link.

Anna got onto her knees and picked herself off the floor. Her healing abilities wouldn't kick in for something like this. The mental flashes of pain were just that, mental.

She limped over to the door.

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Ryan was busy reading _Shogun_ to Sherry, when he 'felt' a presence in the hallway. He was sure he had felt it before. Something clicked in his head, and he realized it was Anna. But why was she scared, hurt, and sad? Wait. How could he sense her emotions? How did he even know that she was there?

He looked up from the book, much to Sherry's disappointment.

"What's wrong?" Sherry asked.

Ryan didn't hear her, however. He was too busy concentrating on the very faint voice in his head. He was amazed to find it was Anna's.

'_Please be awake...'_

Her presence was at the foot of his door. He wanted to test if these were just tricks his mind was playing on him, so he called out, "It's open."

And to his surprise, the door opened, and Anna stepped inside the room. He would have to ask her about this later. He was sure that it was a Seraph ability.

Her skin was pale, she had a slight limp and she was shaking a bit.

"Ryan...?" she said, her voice barely above a whisper. "Can I talk to you in private? Just for a second?"

'_Please say yes...I need someone to talk to...'_

Ryan dared to answer the thought.

'Since when are you co-dependent?' He thought/said without ill meaning.

Anna went wide-eyed.

'_You can...hear...my thoughts...?'_

'Uh...yeah...I guess...'

Ryan then got the feeling that Anna was pushing various thoughts to places of her mind that he could not reach, and wouldn't want to. Human curiosity or not, he respected her privacy. He then decided to do the same, and didn't get the feeling that Anna was trying to pry into his mind.

"Sure," he said. "We'll talk in the hall."

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Sherry wasn't sure what to make of what she had just seen.

First, that Asian girl--Anna Yamaguchi or whatever--walked in , and asked to talk to Ryan in private. Then there's a few seconds of silence, the girl went wide-eyed and a few more facial expressions from both sides. Then Ryan answers with "Sure, we'll talk in the hall" in a voice that suggested that she had asked him just a few moments ago, when all there had been was about thirty seconds of silence. Plus, there weren't any voices coming from outside.

Sherry's brow furrowed.

'Just what is going on between those two?'

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'_Okay_,' Ryan thought. '_What's going on_?'

'It's Mark...' Anna thought as she looked down at the floor.

'_What about him?' _Ryan asked, his face darkening.

'He...he...he has a mental link with me...'

'_Like this one?'_

'Yes...he used it to warn me of what would happen if I didn't turn back over to their side...and he...used some sort of mental attack on me...'

Ryan's face turned angry.

'_He...attacked you?'_

'Yeah, I guess you could say that.'

Ryan turned away form Anna.

'_Son of a...' _

He then looked at her again. A deep fire was burning in his eyes.

'_I'm gonna kill him. No man can hit a woman and get away with it.'_

Since Ryan wasn't adept at the mental link, the first thought to pop in his head was said.

__

Anna remained silent in both thought and speech.

'_Sorry...that came out of nowhere. Seriously, you shouldn't--no--you should worry about it, but...well...you have to understand that he's been brainwashed. You were just lucky enough to not be under Vickers's influence as long as he was. There may be a way to get him back to our side. I'll help you as much as I can,' _he thought. '_But if you don't get to him, then my chances aren't much better...damnit! that came out of nowhere again! I'm really sorry!'_

'It's okay,' Anna replied.

'_What else did he tell you_?'

Anna tried to smile.

'Besides acting like I'm on a game show? He told me that...well...the reason that I'm with you guys is because of...uhhhh...nothing.'

'_Nothing?'_

'It's too embarrassing to tell you.'

__

'Okay...then how about this, is the answer yes or no? You don't have to tell me what it is, just think it for yourself.'

Anna then retreated to her inner thoughts, but still kept the mental link with Ryan.

'I...man...how else can I explain the mental link with Ryan?'

She deleted that thought.

'No. I can share the mental link with someone if they're a friend. Which is just what Ryan is. A friend. Nothing more.'

A voice in the back of her head said otherwise.

'_Denial._'

'Screw you!'

That wasn't Ryan or Mark's voice, it was her own.

She could feel Ryan wanting to ask her something, so she came out of her thoughts.

'Yes?' she asked.

'_Is this a Seraph power? You never told me about this.'_

'Yeah. I didn't tell you because I thought that we wouldn't be using a mental link. Notice how faint my voice sounds?'

'_Yeah.'_

'Well, that means two things, first, you aren't adept at this yet. Second, it means that we don't share that strong a bond.'

'_What bond?'_

'The power of a mental link is determined by how closely the two people involved are. It can range from friend to lover. Experience with mental linking is also a factor. It is also believed that you may even get to read the minds of other non-Seraphs if you use this for years.'

There was a short pause between the two.

'_So...this means that we're friends?'_

'Apparently.'

"Okay then," he said, aloud. "Umm...if you need anything else, you know where I am."

"Thanks Ryan. I feel a little bit better." She then bowed as an equal. "_Oyasumi nasai._"

He returned an equal bow.

"Yeah. _Oyasumi nasai._"

Anna turned back toward her room.

'I promise not to invade your dreams, but I'll try to keep a mental link with you,' she thought.

She heard Ryan chuckle.

'_Okay, but if something is happening in my dream--I think you know what I mean--then don't disturb me, okay?_' came his reply.

Anna chuckled herself.

'Don't worry.'

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The trip to the labs was spent in silence. There was only one thing left to do, and they knew it. And it was something that they weren't too thrilled about. Especially Anna. They were glad that this would bring them one step closer to stopping Umbrella, but the thought of taking a human life, or lives, still lingered in their conscience.

Anna had not showed them the hidden door in the courtyard, not wanting to give herself away to the others. Instead, she let them lead the way to the boiler room entrance. 

The lights were now almost out of commission, making the trip through the room much like wandering through the dark. Without warning, the lights suddenly came back to full life, and she glanced over to Ryan who was looking at her, smiling. Anna returned the smile. He was adapting to his powers quite well.

When the elevator stopped at the upper level of the labs, she had to wrinkle her nose. She had not been on the upper level since the T-virus had been released, so the rotten smells were new to her.

Referring to the map, they found a place where they could search into the lab's mainframes in an office not far from their location, but it went through uncharted territory, where zombies and other types of B.O.W's would be waiting for them.

Something that no one liked.

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Various sounds of gunfire echoed throughout the room, from the small 'pop' of a .380, to the loud 'Blam' of an M629C.

They had wandered into a large open room that was apparently a Licker nest. They had no choice but to pass through it, and the ventilation shafts were too risky.

The room had various small molds and fungi spreading over the walls and the temperature was higher in here than in most places in the labs. Crude nests that were made of metal, bloody cloth, and molds dotted a few corners of the room. Though there were not that many nests, there were very many Lickers.

The humans were in a back-to-back formation so that on one would have to worry about being attacked from behind.

Claire fired her Winchester .38 Rifle at an approaching Licker. It fell back, injured, but still alive.

Pow!

One more .38 caliber slug from her rifle fixed that. The new weapon that Chris had bought her just recently had been proving to be very useful in the labs.

She had the job of not only assisting Sherry in taking down the monsters, but of covering her own back as well. 

Chris was handling himself very nicely, and Leon would back him or Claire up when they needed to reload.

Ryan and Anna were covering for each other, but once in a while, Ryan would pick off an approaching Licker that was headed in Sherry's direction. 

Claire's gun had run out of ammo, and her reserves were running out. She decided to load one last time, then switch to her Grenade Launcher.

"Leon! Cover!" Claire shouted above the gunfire.

"Copy!"

She turned to the task of reloading.

'Three...four...five...six...'

At that point, she heard Anna give out a yelp.

A Licker had crawled on the ceiling and gotten around her defenses, and was now on top of Anna.

Claire jumped to help her, but held back when she found that the Licker had suddenly recoiled, its skin melted to the bone by what looked like acid.

Claire wanted to think about what she just saw, but her brain wouldn't allow her to. She had to finish killing off these monsters first.

Anna quickly recovered, picked up her gun (it was really Ryan's, Claire had noted before, but thought that he had only given it to her as a means of protection), and finished it off. Anna called to Ryan for cover, and reloaded, then got back to the task at hand.

Claire had finished her reloading only a few seconds after, and started to shoot at Lickers that were hanging from the walls.

There were a few more minutes of continuous gunfire, then silence.

After their breathing returned to normal and the adrenaline subsided, they took the time to survey their damage.

What looked like between fifty and seventy-five Lickers were sprawled out on the floor.

They all breathed a sigh of relief, and gave themselves a mental pat on the back.

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Mark sat watching the monitors with high interest. He had expected Ryan and Anna to get through, but not the unworthy humans that were with them now.

A tiny smile played across his face. The humans were better than he thought.

Mark stood up.

But they couldn't stand up to the power of a Seraph.

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Sherry had started to wish that she could have a better firearm. The one that she had only held seven rounds, and it was a little inaccurate. Plus, it only fired .380 rounds.

But it worked very well against zombies, she soon noted.

The group of zombies that had followed the onslaught of Lickers had her gain a new respect in her weapon and accuracy skills. But it also had her wondering where all these new ones came from. There weren't that many here last time.

She dismissed her thoughts when she saw a zombie that everyone had thought was dead, starting to crawl for her. 

_Pop!_

One bullet to the head put it to rest. The hallway was then soon cleared of zombies, but a monster cry soon re-ignited the fear that they all had. It was a Hunter cry. Sherry could see Ryan start to shake and to back up. His hand went for his pocket.

There was another cry.

'Where the hell is it coming from?' Sherry thought.

Her questions were answered when one of the tiles in the ceiling fell to the floor and a red Hunter followed it. The hunter soon slumped to the ground; a switchblade embedded in its face.

She looked over at Ryan who, though he had a look of extreme fear and surprise, was still in a throwing pose.

"I...didn't know what was happening until I threw the knife..." he replied.

Ryan shakily bent over the Hunter's corpse, and yanked out the switchblade with a sickening sound. He recoiled his hand as if he had been burned, then produced a cloth with which he cleaned off the knife. 

He said nothing else, and tried to look calm, but everyone could see a certain fear in his eyes.

Without another word, the group continued on. 

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As Mark slowly walked down the hallway, various thoughts formed in his head. Thoughts of killing Ryan, and how to deal with Anna.

'I have decided to make you suffer Ryan...Prepare to face my wrath...' Mark thought. 'But how to deal with Anna? Hmmmmmm...I could...no, I must give her a chance first...If she refuses?...Then I guess I'll have to knock her off this mortal coil. The humans? Bah. Easy. Incineration.'

Mark smiled to himself, savoring the thought of the kill. He then thought back to the time that Umbrella had sent their forces to deal with them.

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"Put your hands up!" One soldier barked. "Do it! Now!"

Mark and Anna were standing in the way of the Umbrella assault team, guarding the elevator behind them. They weren't going to let them pass.

Mark looked at and Anna, and both nodded. He formed an invisible fire barrier around both of them, and gave a smile. 

"Try us," Mark goaded at them, his voice calm. "Can you pitiful, worthless humans truly sand up to the powers of a Seraph?"

"We delt with you guys on the surface! You can't really do anything!"

Mark and Anna laughed. This caused the soldiers to back up a few feet, but they kept their MP5 mini-machineguns directed at them.

"Ha!" Mark laughed. "They were just unworthy humans like yourselves! _We_ are Seraphs!"

Mark then formed a ball of fire in his hand, and hurled it at one of the soldiers. Even with his armor vest, the ball of fire went straight though him, and after words, burned his to ashes in a matter of seconds. Anna formed an ice block in her hand, mentally shaped it into a long icicle, and launched at another soldier, impaling him through the chest, and sending him to the floor.

The soldiers once again backed up, and opened fire. All of the bullets harmlessly turned into small fireballs and fell to the floor. After a few seconds of firing, the Umbrella soldiers saw that this was having no effect. So, the ones in front tossed a few grenades at them, not even bothering to figure out that if they really exploded, all of them would most likely be killed.

The grenades met the same fate as the bullets did, and the soldiers began to back up once again.

"Is this all you have?" Anna mocked. "Jeez, you were right, Mark. Humans really are pathetic."

"Really, Anna."

Then, Anna formed several ice blocks in front of her, and made them shatter into hundreds of sharp needle-like projectiles. The front three rows of soldiers were ruthlessly skewed by the ice, blood flying everywhere, the front row taking the most damage. They fell screaming, dead even before they reached the floor.

Mark then made all the rest that hadn't fell victim to the ice attack, become engulfed in large balls of flame. Not even ashes of them remained. 

Once the carnage had stopped, they looked around the room, trying to look for survivors. There were two. One could still talk in a very low and raspy voice, while the other could barely breathe.

Anna went over to the one that could still talk.

"Help...me...please..." He begged.

"Help you? I can relieve you from your pain if you so wish."

Anna once again formed an ice lance in her hand. She then stabbed the man though the neck. He tried to scream, but all that came out was a gargled hiss. The man died seconds later.

Mark went over to the other one, hovering over him. The soldier reached a hand out for him, begging him to save his life.

"I don't think so," Mark said.

Mark simply walked away with Anna, letting the man die a slow and painful death.

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Mark wished that Anna hadn't had such a change of heart. Her performance had been nothing less than perfect in that battle. She was ruthless, and like her element, cold. 

'But,' Mark thought. 'Water can also be warmed up, which is exactly what that Ryan has done. That is why he must die.'

With his 'battle plan' worked out, he quickened his pace a little, but remained in a walk. 

"The Seraphs shall rule...I will let nothing disrupt the will of God...Nothing. Not even God himself..."

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Chris and Leon studied the map.

Using Leon's canny sense of finding locations on maps and Chris's leadership and strategic skills, they mapped their escape plan. Going on to this Dr. Vickers's office, they would initiate the self-destruct program. Then, they would hightail it to the underground hangar where two choppers were waiting. 

They were only about two meters from Vickers's office. They were running low on ammo, but just one more room, and a long hallway, and it would be over.

They once again drew their weapons, and entered the next room. It was another living quarters similar to the one that Chris had encountered. This room was full of zombies that were busy feeding on the various corpses lying on the ground. The bodies shook helplessly under the ripping teeth and clawlike hands of the zombies.

It wasn't until what looked like pieces of brain and lung hit the wall near Anna that Ryan quickly opened fire, and the others soon followed suit. The zombies fell like flies, some not even getting the chance to rise from the ground. Some were hit by two or more bullets. 

When the gunfire ended, the only thing left upright was the group. Still, six zombies that had not been hit in the head were crawling toward them.

Everyone picked a zombie, and either smashed its head, or kicked its head off its shoulders.

Finished with the room, they moved to the door on the other side of the room. It slid open and then they were in a long hallway. Just behind the door at the end was Dr. Vickers' office.

The tingly feeling of excitement filled their veins as they walked further down the hall. When they reached the door, their hearts were racing.

Leon went ahead and turned the doorknob. It opened with a click. Then, Leon and Chris suddenly jumped into the room, and scanned it with their guns. When they found nothing to cause alarm, they motioned everyone else in.

Each of them scanned the room for what would be the control panel for the lab mainframe.

"I think I found it," Anna called out.

It wasn't on the computer as everyone else thought at first. She had lifted the white marker board behind his desk, revealing another computer built into the wall.

"Ummmm...anyone here know how to hack?" Leon asked. "Unlike Bhrams, this is password protected."

The adults were clueless. They turned to their younger companions, as if they were expecting something from them.

"I'll try," Sherry volunteered.

"What? Since when do you use computers?" Claire asked.

"Since two years ago. Learned from a friend how to hack without using any special programs. Let's just hope that their database is poorly protected..."

Sherry's hands flew across the keyboard. Claire guessed that she was typing seventy words per minute.

Soon afterward, a black window appeared in DOS format on the monitor. She typed in a few key codes, the screen went blank for a moment, then a message appeared reading, 'Welcome.'

"Yes!" Sherry exclaimed. "You can do the rest from here."

"Please," Chris said, obviously impressed, "do the honors."

"O-okay..." she replied.

Sherry tapped a few keys, and a window appeared with a list of commands.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

1Projects *PASSWORD REQUIRED*

2Developments

3Umbrella News

4Personal Files *PASSWORD REQUIRED*

5Other

--5Y N?

--Y

1 Alarm

2Release B.O.W's*PASSWORD REQUIRED*

3Security Cameras

4Self-destruct*PASSWORD REQUIRED*

--4Y N?

------PLEASE ENTER PASSWORD: **_________________**

DOS: usumb259347/jvickers/hackpw/re/ent/

------------------------------------------

CHECKING………………….

PASSWORD ACCEPTED.

CONTINUE? Y N?

-- Y

Are you sure? This will destroy the laboratory.

-- Y N?

-- Y

Self-destruct sequence will begin in ten minutes. After this, there will be no way to abort it. Please proceed with emergency escape. Dr. Jared Vickers will be informed of this happening in order to prevent sabotage.

****

[9:59]

To cancel, press Ctrl+Alt+Esc

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"Okay. It's done," Sherry said. "Let's get the heck out of here."

Wordlessly, Ryan handed her a low-five, which Sherry returned.

"My little computer genius," Claire said as she gave Sherry a playful head rub.

"Claire! Stop it! You're embarrassing me!"

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'You know where I am, Anna.' Mark thought.

'_Damn you Mark! Don't bother me!_'

'Heh...Sorry, but that just can't be done. If you don't come to realize your mistakes in a few minutes, you'll die by my hand, as will Ryan.'

'_You don't need to kill him. I came of my own free will._'

'But he placed the ideas in your head to make you turn traitor. Therefore, he must die.'

'_If you kill him..._'

'Oh...why are you so protective of him all of a sudden?'

He could feel Anna flinch.

'I'll just leave you with these thoughts.'

Then Mark cut off the mental link. He walked over to the ceiling door controls for the underground heliport, and he pressed the 'Open' button. There was a loud mechanical clang, and a smooth grinding noise. The ceiling slowly opened to the afternoon sky. The weather was very clear today. Perfect for flying.

Mark sighed, tilted his head to the port, and closed his eyes.

"Ahhhh......Nature can be so beautiful..." His expression turned dark. "And humans so deadly and barbaric..."

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Claire looked back at Anna and Ryan. At first Ryan was looking ahead with everyone else, and odd expressions were passing over Anna's face, as if she were talking to someone. Then Ryan and Anna were looking at each other, and though they exchanged no words their faces looked as if they were talking to each other. Ryan even softly chuckled once.

'That's very odd,' Claire thought. 'I wonder. Are they having some sort of staring contest?'

No. Ryan wasn't like that. He would try to loosen up others, not himself, in tense situations like this. Then again, she had noticed a few unexpected things coming from Ryan since Anna had been on the scene.

She smiled. 

And Sherry seemed a little agitated. Something definitely was going on here. And not just with Ryan and Anna.

'Maybe she thinks that Anna is going to steal him away from her. No, I don't think so. Ryan and I are the only family she has after Raccoon. He wouldn't abandon her that easily.'

"Hey." 

Leon's whisper into her ear snapped her out of her thoughts.

"What's going on? You looked like you were dozing off there."

"Just making an analysis of the situation," Claire answered and jerked a thumb back toward Anna and Ryan.

Leon followed the direction of her thumb and took a look himself. They still seemed as if they were talking though they weren't.

"Yeah, I know. They've been doing that all morning. I also talked to Sherry, and she said that something similar was going on last night," Leon said.

Claire shrugged.

"They act like they have telepathy, or something." She said.

She then felt Leon's firm yet gentle grip around her hand. He gave a light squeeze, and she returned it, smiling at him.

"Okay, people," Chris said. "Let's hit top speed. We don't have much time to spare."

Everyone nodded, and they all sped down the hallways for their escape route.

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Mark could sense it. They were coming. They were running.

"It's about damn time. You already wasted four minutes. I could make it here in just two."

His gaze kept gaze on the sky, he formed an invisible fire barrier around himself to protect himself from gunfire, should there be any. In another moment, the hangar doors opened. He turned to meet them.

Though the humans looked surprised, the two Seraphs had very controlled faces. Masks over their real emotions. Ryan rage, Anna sorrow. He could feel the electricity in the air from Ryan, the cool relief of water from Anna. He could also see a small spark of electricity from Ryan's hand, and a few droplets of water from Anna.

"Welcome!" Mark said cheerfully. "Unfortunately, I can't allow you to leave. Your resting grounds will be here!"

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They were stepping into the room, but Ryan had felt Mark far down the corridor, well before he was ten yards from the door. He was here, and he wasn't going down without a fight. He could feel that Anna felt that same because she tensed up and blocked her thoughts. 

When the hangar doors opened, he and Anna stepped a few feet closer to Mark than the others. He clenched his fist, and could feel a small spark of electricity in his right hand.

When Mark spoke, the calmness of his voice sent a wave of dread over Ryan.

"Welcome!" he said cheerfully. "Unfortunately, I can't allow you to leave. Your resting grounds will be here!"

"Like hell it will!" Ryan said.

"Mark," Anna pleaded. "Please stop this!"

"Anna, I told you what your choices were. I shall present you with them now. Will you rejoin us or not?"

"Okay," Leon broke in. His tone was flat, as if his temper were being held at bay. "Can someone tell me just what's going on here?"

"_Quiet, human_!" Mark snapped. "Do not interfere with matters that are out of your league!"

Leon froze in his place, silent.

"Anna! Your answer!" Mark demanded.

Everyone looked at her. Four wanting some answers to what was going on, one pleading her to say no, one demanding her to say yes.

It was only a few seconds of before she had her reply.

"No. If you need to kill me for to you to realize the severity of your actions, then so be it."

Anna stepped forward.

"Wait," Ryan broke in. He stepped forward. Placing a gentle hand on Anna's shoulder, he pushed her back.

"Listen to me, guys, no matter what happens, you _must_ stay back. Period." Ryan said to the others. 

"Can you tell us what's happening?" Claire asked.

"No. Not now. When we make it though this, I will."

"_If_ you do." Mark said.

"Shut up, Mark," Ryan shot back with venom.

Ryan took out all of his weapons and items, and placed them on the floor.

"So you smoke?" Mark taunted. "My, my, my...will you ever learn?"

Ryan ignored him, and took another step forward.

"No! Ryan! Don't! He'll kill you!" Anna beseeched.

"I've got no choice," Ryan said. "They can't kill him, and he's still your friend."

Chris must have seen that Mark had let his guard down, for suddenly he fired his Glock 17 at Mark. But when the bullets reached five feet of him, they turned into little balls of flame, and fell to the floor.

Mark looked annoyed.

"What the hell...?" Chris said.

"_Don't you DARE try that again, human!_" Mark roared in a voice like some sort of vengeful god. "_For if you do, I shall make your blood turn into fire within your veins, along with your body!_"

"Step back!" Ryan demanded. "He can kill you guys with very little effort!"

"Come, Ryan! Give me a challenge! Show me what one Seraph can do to another!" Mark announced.

Ryan stepped up to Mark. For the first time, he was fighting for the lives of not only himself, but the others, all by himself.

"Bring it on..." Ryan said.

He went into a fighting stance, and a flame appeared in Mark's hand. It soon shaped itself into a Scottish Claymore.

"Are you afraid?" Mark asked.

Ryan didn't respond. He just circled around Mark, waiting for him to make the first move. He would have to be careful of how he fought. A helicopter was right behind him. 

Mark made the first move. He swung with his Claymore, leaving red flames where it had been. Ryan had barely been able to duck. He rolled to the side when Mark decided to bring it down on him. His enhanced speed was making this a little easier. After the next strike, Ryan found an opening. He tried his best to charge his own bio-electricity into his right hand, but only came out with too small a charge.

Mark recoiled from both the shock and the punch.

"Ahhhh...you're adapting to your powers well," Mark said. "Well then, I guess that this makes it unfair." 

With another swing, the sword vanished into thin air.

"Let's get down to the basis of all combat, yes?"

Mark got into a fighting stance himself, and Ryan found himself wishing that not only that he had taken his Jujitsu, Judo, and Kung Fu lessons a little bit more seriously, but he also wished that Mark had taken the Claymore back out. 

Mark was pulling off various moves from various martial arts, most that Ryan had not seen. He had somehow managed to fend them off, but whenever he tried to land a hit, it was either dodged or blocked, but always countered. As time went on, Mark's hits started to land closer to home. Ryan knew that Mark had been taking it easy on him. Then on an unexpected move, Ryan was hit by a sweep, but had managed not to fall. However, as soon as he looked up at Mark he was hit in the side of the face by a flying roundhouse, which sent him into a spin, and he hit the floor. Hard.

Ryan coughed, trying to regain his breath.

Mark waited, letting Ryan rise to his feet.

"I was taking it easy on you," Mark sneered, "then I showed you just a taste of my abilities as a human, and you take forever to get back to your feet? I do give you credit for looking like I didn't hit you at all, except for your bloody lip."

Ryan touched his lip, but kept an eye on Mark. He wiped the blood from his lips, his mouth tasting like copper. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that his blood was purple, something which startled him for a moment, but he still kept his mind to the task at hand.

"I'm nowhere near finished!" Ryan declared.

"Good, cause I need some fun..."

Ryan charged, remaining calm, but releasing swift motions that would take a trained eye to follow. Mark blocked most of them, but more and more were getting past his defenses. Ryan sent a kidney punch that was blocked, a sweep was dodged, a roundhouse was dodged, a high kick was dodged as well, and a knee to the stomach was blocked--and reversed--sending Ryan into a flip. He had anticipated this, and landed with eerie grace just a few feet away.

Hoping Mark was fooled into thinking he was resorting to kicks only, he sent another kidney punch to Mark, catching him off guard. Mark hunched over in response, and Ryan took the opening to land him a hook in the jaw and an elbow to the back. This time it was Mark's turn to hit the floor.

To everyone's surprise, Mark simply laughed, got up, wiped the blood from his lips, and spit.

"That was very good, Ryan. Unfortunately, I must take off the kid gloves now. It was a pleasure to fight with you, it truly was," Mark said.

"Keep dreaming!" 

Both charged at the same time, emitting loud war cries. Ryan's fist came in first, hitting Mark in the chest. Mark countered with a sideways chop to the neck. Ryan blocked it, and then threw a few feint punches and a kick to the kneecap. Mark moved out of the way, and charged into Ryan elbow first. Ryan was hit but only fell back a few feet. He quickly recovered and came in with a drop kick to the face. A risky move, but it paid off. Mark was hit, and fell back. He quickly recovered, and Ryan came at him again. This time, Ryan kicked him in the ankle, and followed with a kick to the side of the head. He then came in elbow first to Mark's stomach. 

"ATTENTION," A mechanical voice boomed from the loudspeakers and reverberated from the stone walls of the hangar. "THE SELF-DESTRUCT SEQUENCE HAS BEEN ACTIVATED. REPEAT, THE SELF-DESTRUCT SEQUENCE HAS BEEN ACTIVATED. THIS SEQUENCE CANNOT BE ABORTED. ALL PERSONNEL EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY TO DESIGNATED LOCATIONS. TEN MINUTES UNTIL DETONATION."

It was this that caused Ryan to lose concentration in the fight, and Mark hit him with a flurry of punches. There were so many, that Ryan didn't know where he had been hit, only that there were explosions of pain from everywhere in his body. Then Mark sent a backhand to Ryan's face, an uppercut to the jaw, and an elbow to the stomach. Ryan was losing balance. But Mark didn't stop there.

He grabbed Ryan, and gave him a kidney punch. Two kidney punches. Three. Four. Five. Six. A highkick to the face sent Ryan to the floor like a rag doll. He lay there face down for a few moments, not moving, but then he turned over, groaning with pain. Ryan had been beaten.

Mark hovered over him, a hand poised for his throat. If he were to jab forward, it would break Ryan's neck.

"You were one of the best adversaries that I ever had. No one your age could have taken a beating like that from me and even be conscious. It will be a shame to send you to the other side, Ryan Davidson. It really will be."

Mark raised his hand and pointed it toward Ryan's neck like a spear.

Mark then fell to the floor screaming. A hissing noise rose from his skin. He had been hit by acid. 

Everyone looked at Anna who still held a fist toward Mark.

"I told you what would happen if you tried to kill him, Mark. You seem to forget that opposite elements don't mix. Water and fire." 

The humans stood dumbfounded. This girl was one of _them_?

Anna ran over to Ryan and helped him to his feet. Mark was staggering to his feet.

"Why did you do that, Anna?" Mark groaned.

The acid had burned a hole in the back of his clothing, red muscle visible through the fabric, but he looked like he took no heed of it.

"Because I won't allow you to kill him."

"And...why is that...?"

Anna couldn't articulate a response. Ryan then seemed to suddenly regain his strength. He rushed at Mark with a blinding fury, and threw multiple punches that were a blur of voltage. With the last blow, Ryan sent his palm straight for Mark's forehead. The impact sent Mark rolling on the floor.

The fading echo of combat died out and it was silent in the hangar. Ryan fell back into Anna's arms, visibly exhausted.

He could feel a mental link forming with Mark and Anna, so he tried to establish one with Anna, using Anna as a go-between so he could also speak to Mark.

'You were right, Anna. You were right. It's strange that you only realize things like this when you're so close to death...'

'_Don't talk like that, Mark. You'll be fine._'

'Stop fooling yourself,' came Mark's voice. 'You know damn well--just as I do--that there's no way I'll survive this. That acid burned through my body down to muscle and the electricity pretty much fried everything in me. I'm surprised that I'm still alive.'

All three knew Mark spoke the truth.

'Mark...I'm sorry...' Ryan thought.

'What for? You were fighting not only for the lives of your friends, but also for humanity.'

'_It was my fault that he ended up like this,' _Anna thought, not being able to restrain the first thought that popped up in her head. '_If I hadn't used that acid attack...'_

'Then I'd be dead,' Ryan finished for her, even if he knew that wasn't what she was going to say.

'That's right. You saved his life, Anna. He owes you...'

The minds of the three telepaths were momentarily emptied. It was Mark who broke into the silence.

'Ryan, I need to ask you a favor.'

'What?'

'I need you to finish me off.'

'_Mark!_'

'What? I...I can't kill you! You...not when you've just realized the truth!'

'Then you want me to die a slow, painful death? Though I probably deserve it, that's not what I would like.'

'I...'

'Anna, go get his gun for him.'

Anna fought with herself but her visions of a slow painful death for Mark were more than she could bear.

She picked up Ryan's Beretta 92, and handed it to him. Ryan could barely stand on his feet.

Ryan aimed, but did not fire.

'_Ryan, please. He's in pain. Just put him out of his misery...'_

'Then why don't you do it?!' Ryan nearly shouted in thought. 'He's not a threat anymore! He doesn't deserve to die!'

'_But he will even if we don't do anything_!'

'But--'

'_Please, Ryan. I know I couldn't do this_.'

Ryan aimed once again, shaky but not straying from his target: Mark's head.

Ryan halfway squeezed the trigger. It was then for the first time in his life that he realized how simple it was to end a life. Like a simple pull of a trigger.

He shut his eyes, and both he and Anna looked away.

'Thank you, Ryan,' were Mark's last words.

'Forgive me!' Ryan thought.

Pow!

And there was an undeniable silence.

Anna helped Ryan gather all of his things, and then Chris spoke up in a voice faltering out of control. "What just happened?!"

"FIVE MINUTES UNTIL DETONATION."

"We don't have time to explain right now," Anna told him. "Let's just get out of here!" 

They all ran to the chopper and boarded. The blades of the chopper started up, and soon they were lifted off the ground. Leon called on his experience from the short time that he had piloted a cargo chopper to escape the Bhrams labs in the little six-man chopper. This machine was more difficult, but when he piloted it out of the hangar and it lifted whirring into the air, everyone cheered.

Just when they had flown free of the labs, a deafening explosion rocked the earth. They saw the lab erupting into the air in millions of pieces, and several blocks of the town surrounding where the labs had been went up with it. 

"So where to now?" Leon shouted above the sound of the chopper blades.

Ryan, teetering on the verge of consciousness, was able to speak without too much of a slur.

"I...hear that there's a KKK rally going on in...this suburb north of Chicago called Skokie..."

"A rally?" Claire asked.

"Yeah...we could go in opposition of them...give them a piece of our minds...I think it's the 16th of this month...in front of the county courthouse..."

"Why not?" Leon said. "We don't have much of anywhere else to go, plus it would be good to see the Chicagoland area again."

It was at this point that Ryan blacked out in a deep, exhausted sleep.

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Epilogue

__

Three months later...

7:47 PM

Leon logged into his e-mail, not expecting to see anything. However, there was a message from a Megan Kennedy. He smiled and read the message.

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__

'Waaaaaazzzzzzzzaaaaaappppppp??!! (Sorry, just had to do that) 

It has_ been two years since we've spoken to eachother. How did you know that I was going to the University of California? Mom and Dad told you, right?_

Since you're wondering how I'm doing, I'm doing great. My grades are above average (yeah, Kennedy's do get good grades), but college can be SO boring at times. Most of the time, though, it's a blast!

That woman you're with, Claire Redfield, I can tell just by looking at her that she's a great person. I would grab on to her and never let her go if I were you.

Well, my personal life is very well; I've met someone myself. His name is Carter Smith. I've got a picture in an attachment file, so take a look if you want to.

Later (with love back at ya)!

Megan'

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'Well,' Leon thought. 'Next to waking up next to Claire today, this would probably be the highpoint of my day.'

He clicked on the attachment file, expecting someone for him to disapprove of (his 'protective brother' instinct). What he found was just a simple young man who looked like he was having a good time with his sister.

'Lucky you,' Leon thought. 'You've started out on my good side.'

Leon had been overprotective of her ever since she had got the wrong boyfriend. He was a 'crackhead,' which Megan found out too late. She was drugged one night with 'roofies' as they're called, and she was almost raped. If Leon hadn't known of her location and hadn't followed his gut feeling... he beat the living daylights out of the guy, and for that he had landed in jail for two days.

The other guys got five years with probation, if Leon's memory served him correctly.

He smiled at the memory. He loved it when he beat the guy down. It had sickened him at first, but when he realized what a scum of the human race the guy was, he had almost enjoyed having the guy's blood on his hands.

"Speaking of the human race..."

Leon remembered when they had found a working van a few minutes after they had landed the chopper. They left Carlton and didn't look back. Now they were in the Chicago area, living in the suburb of Skokie. Since Leon's old precinct was only about six miles away in Chicago, he had agreed with the others to take a house in the suburbs.

Ryan and Anna had explained what happened and everything they knew about Seraphs when they had gotten to a hospital the night of their escape. It hadn't taken much to make them believe Ryan and Anna. It did however take some time for them to regain their trust in Anna. Ryan had suffered a mild concussion and a dislocated arm. He was also barely able to use his legs for the next week or so, but was back and on his feet for the KKK rally, which he said he actually had 'fun' screaming at the Klan members, and even throwing snowballs at the police, and 'beating up some skinheads', but everyone knew that he didn't take part in the latter, though other people did. 

Leon did get his old job back, after quite a tongue lashing. The chief let him stay, because he knew he would be losing a valuable officer if he didn't.

The same day he had gotten his job back, Leon had gotten Chris on the force as his partner. After explaining that the rumors about the Raccoon S.T.A.R.S was just something Raccoon Chief of Police Brian Irons had made up just because he didn't like any one of them--except for Jill, but he didn't really get enough time to try and do anything to her, luckily--so then he could replace the whole team, which wasn't far form the truth.

Claire Redfield enrolled at the University of Chicago for medical school, which she took only four times a week. Sherry vowed to follow after her as a Scientist.

Anna and Ryan were enrolled into the closest high school, Niles West. Sherry went to Lincoln Jr. High to finish her grade school education which was only about a mile away from Niles West.

Leon was snapped out of his thoughts when he felt someone wrap their arms around his shoulders and whisper in his ear, "What cha up to?"

It was Claire.

She started to look at the screen.

"So. This is your sister Megan?" She asked.

"Uh-huh."

"She...looks just like a female version of you..."

"So I've been told."

"Let me guess, you take on the 'concerned, overprotective big brother' role in the relationship?"

"Yeah. How'd you know?"

Claire gave a grin and shrugged.

"You just look like the type. Not so much as Chris, but you still look like you fill that role well.

"Since when did you get back from the hospital?"

  
"Just now. I was lucky enough to be let off early. My god it was such a hectic day. Being around doctors for so long makes them seem like they're speaking an entirely different language."

"Just look at all those chemical and drug names. Not to mention procedures. Of course they do."

Claire gave an exhausted sigh.

"Well," She said. "It seems like I'm learning the 'language' and practice pretty well. The doctors are less stingy to me now, and I don't seem to make the same mistakes I used to. Still, I have a long way to go."

"Don't worry, you can do it. You're Claire Redfield. Once you set your mind to something, you don't give up."

"Thanks."

She then pulled him in for a kiss. When they separated, Leon got up from his seat in the chair.

"I've got to be on the graveyard shift in a few hours, so I need to get as much rest as possible." Leon said.

"What? I thought that your hours were during the daytime?"

"Well, the captain switched my hours for about two moths. Something about an officer and his partner who got shot during his graveyard shift. It was a gang shot out between the Latin Kings and the Blood I believe. I'm supposed to hold his position with Chris until he recovers."

Those words gave Claire a sense of fear.

"Chicago can be dangerous at night...I know you have Chris with you, but still try to be careful. Especially if you go down to the south or west sides. Okay?"

Leon gave her a reassuring smile.

"Don't you worry. I'll be fine."

Leon went upstairs with Claire not far behind.

"If you're thinking of doing _that_," Leon said, turning to face Claire. "Then I have to say no. Everyone's downstairs."

"No. I just want to be with you. Besides, I'm pretty zoned out myself."

There were cheers from downstairs, and several high-fives could be heard.

"That'll teach ya not to mess with the Chicago White Sox, biyach!" Came Sherry's voice.

"Go back to New York, ya freakin' Yankees!" Ryan shouted. "And bow down to the second city while you're at it!"

"Yeah! Hit it to 'em 'Mags'*!" Anna cheered.

The only one who didn't cheer was Chris, who was obviously a Yankees fan.

Leon and Claire exchanged a laugh, and continued their walk up the steps. Times were good now, and it looked as if a promising future loomed over the horizon for all of them. 

__

Fin

**** **__**

If you're wondering how I know of the KKK rally, let me say that I was there. I will go on record saying that I didn't do anything to the cops or skinheads who came to taunt us, but I did curse my head off at em. It got very hectic at the end, and I was forced to leave when the police brought out the M79s with teargas, and nightsticks. Now that I look back on it, it was actually kinda fun, besides all the arrests. 

*'Mags' is the nickname for a very good Chicago White Sox player, Maglio Ordornez, second only to Frank Thomas in terms of hitting (Yes, I know that that's not the proper spelling, so sue me. I can't spell in Spanish).

For those who didn't know, and to prevent confusion, the part where Mark and Anna are killing the Umbrella S.W.A.T, it's a flashback, not something that was happening currently.

Jeez...153 HTML pages...this is modt probably the longest single document that I've written in my life...Anyway, I really have to thank my editing team, F.Buckley, Mayumi_H, Red Kat 9, and Catalina and Jack the Ripper. You guys did a great job with this whole series, as you usually do! I also have to thank you, the reader, for reading this all the way through. There were a lot of encouraging reviews that I got. Alright. Well, let me say that I'm not going to stop writing any time soon, and I have three other projects that I'm currently working on (two of which are still in the 'maybe' category). So, this is Xenogears, signing off for now. 

__

Oyasumi nasai (O-ya-su-mee-na-sa-Ie)/Good night.

Draft: 4/12/01

Final: 

__

Ja ne!


End file.
